Increased Auditory Dual Task Cost During Gait Initiation in Adult Patients With Persistent Concussion Symptoms.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Biomechanics
• Rehabilitation Science

Background:

• Persistent concussion symptoms (PCS) can lead to long-term functional deficits.
• Gait initiation (GI) requires complex coordination of postural and cognitive processes.
• Dual-task cost (DTC) quantifies the performance decrement when performing two tasks simultaneously.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare DTC during gait initiation between individuals with PCS and healthy controls.
• To investigate the impact of PCS on the anticipatory postural adjustment (APA) phase of gait initiation.
• To determine if cognitive task performance is affected during dual-task gait initiation in PCS.

Main Methods:

• Cohort study design involving 15 PCS patients and 23 healthy controls.
• Motion capture and force plates were used to analyze gait initiation.
• Participants performed single-task and dual-task gait initiation with auditory cognitive tasks.

Main Results:

• PCS participants showed significantly worse DTC in anterior/posterior displacement and medial/lateral velocity during APA.
• A greater dual-task cost was observed in PCS for center of pressure-center of mass separation.
• No significant differences in cognitive task performance were found between groups.

Conclusions:

• Individuals with PCS demonstrate impaired dual-tasking ability during gait initiation.
• PCS patients exhibit a 'posture-second' strategy, prioritizing the cognitive task over postural stability.
• These motor and cognitive deficits may limit functional independence and daily living activities in PCS.