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Updated: Jan 18, 2026
Revised and Neuroimaging-Compatible Versions of the Dual Task Screen
Published on: October 5, 2020
Cortical Response and Functional Connectivity in Patients With Subacute Stroke During Dual Task: An fNIRS Study
Wu Liu1, Congcong Huo2, Simin Zhang3
1School of Advanced Manufacturing, NanChang University, NanChang; Beijing Key Laboratory of Rehabilitation Technical Aids for Old-Age Disability, National Research Center for Rehabilitation Technical Aids, Beijing.
Objective:
To investigate neural plasticity changes in patients with subacute stroke during single motor task and dual-task execution.
Design:
Case-control study.
Setting:
Rehabilitation department in a single hospital.
Participants:
Twenty patients with subacute stroke (mean age, 63.8±10.4y; Mini-Mental State Examination score >20) and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (mean age, 60.95±9.5y) recruited via convenience sampling.
Interventions:
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
A functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system was used to evaluate hemodynamic responses in prefrontal, motor, and occipital regions during single motor task and motor-cognitive dual-task conditions, and functional connectivity (FC) was calculated for each task state.
Results:
Healthy controls showed widespread activation increases during dual-task versus single motor task (P<.05), whereas patients with stroke exhibited enhanced activation only in ipsilesional prefrontal cortex (P=.041) and contralesional supplementary motor area (P=.045). Controls demonstrated significantly higher sensorimotor activation than patients with stroke during dual-task (P=.001). FC analysis revealed increased prefrontal-premotor connectivity in controls (P=.027), whereas patients with stroke showed enhanced bilateral prefrontal (P=.032), premotor (P=.034), and occipital (P=.043) connectivity. In patients with stroke, premotor area activation is negatively correlated with pace (ρ=-0.53, P=.025), heel-strike angle (ρ=-0.73, P=.029), and swing phase (ρ=-0.56, P=.015), but positively with support phase (ρ=0.56, P=.015).
Conclusion:
This study confirms that motor-cognitive dual task paradigms effectively induce activation in the ipsilesional cortex of patients with stroke while enhancing interhemispheric FC, demonstrating significant neuromodulatory effects of dual-task training in stroke rehabilitation; simultaneously, it validates the feasibility of utilizing fNIRS combined with motor paradigms for real-time assessment of neuroplasticity changes.
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