Effects of Walking on Anticipatory Brain Processing During a Concurrent Cognitive Task

Motor and cognitive processes influence each other. Dual-task studies have shown that walking, in particular, may impact performance during cognitive tasks. However, the existing literature shows inconsistent results; changes in performance have been reported to be sometimes ameliorative, sometimes neutral, and at other times detrimental to both cognitive and motor functions. The present study aims to investigate the effects of walking on the motor and cognitive brain processes that underlie task anticipation during a visual discrimination cognitive task. For this purpose, event-related potentials were recorded under two conditions: static standing and walking on the treadmill while participants executed a cognitive task. The presence of optic flow was also controlled to assess its effect on realistic walking. The results show that walking enhanced both motor and cognitive preparation processes, improving response speed and accuracy. This effect may suggest that walking during the execution of a visuomotor cognitive task may not interfere with task preparation and even result in increased cortical activation in prefrontal and premotor areas, thereby improving cognitive performance. Furthermore, the presence of optic flow was found to enhance motor preparation and reduce response time, supporting the efficacy of more realistic walking conditions. However, the presence of a flow field also reduced cognitive preparation and accuracy, likely due to the increased cognitive load associated with concurrent visual information. These findings support the "multiple resources theory," which posits that during dual tasks that do not interfere with each other, the brain can optimize cortical integration and enhance both cognitive and motor resources.