Summary: For some, cognitive performance on tasks improves while walking via a change in the use of neural resources.

Source: University of Rochester

It has long been thought that when walking is combined with a taskboth suffer. Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester found that this is not always the case.

Some young and healthy people improve performance on cognitive tasks while walking by changing the use of neural resources.

However, this does not necessarily mean you should work on a big assignment while walking off that cake from the night before.

There was no predictor of who would fall into which category before we tested them, we initially thought that everyone would respond similarly, said Eleni Patelaki, a biomedical engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in the Frederick J. and Marion A. Schindler Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory and first author of the study out now inCerebral Cortex.

It was surprising that for some of the subjects it was easier for them to do dual-taskingdo more than one taskcompared to single-taskingdoing each task separately. This was interesting and unexpected because most studies in the field show that the more tasks that we have to do concurrently the lower our performance gets.

Improving means changes in the brain

Using the Mobile Brain/Body Imaging system, or MoBI, researchers monitored thebrain activity, kinematics and behavior of 26 healthy 18 to 30-year-olds as they looked at a series of images, either while sitting on a chair or walking on a treadmill. Participants were instructed to click a button each time the image changed. If the same image appeared back-to-back participants were asked to not click.

Performance achieved by each participant in this task while sitting was considered their personal behavioral baseline. When walking was added to performing the same task, investigators found that different behaviors appeared, with some people performing worse than their sitting baselineas expected based on previous studiesbut also with some others improving compared to their sitting baseline.

The electroencephalogram, or EEG, data showed that the 14 participants who improved at the task while walking had a change in frontalbrainfunction which was absent in the 12 participants who did not improve. This brain activity change exhibited by those who improved at the task suggests increased flexibility or efficiency in the brain.

To thenaked eye, there were no differences in our participants. It wasnt until we started analyzing their behavior and brain activity that we found the surprising difference in the groups neural signature and what makes them handle complex dual-tasking processes differently, Patelaki said.

These findings have the potential to be expanded and translated to populations where we know that flexibility of neural resources gets compromised.

Edward Freedman, Ph.D., associate professor of Neuroscience at the Del Monte Institute led this research that continues to expand how the MoBI is helping neuroscientists discover the mechanisms at work when the brain takes on multiple tasks. His previous work has highlighted the flexibility of a healthy brain, showing the more difficult the task the greater the neurophysiological difference between walking and sitting.

These new findings highlight that the MoBI can show us how the brain responds to walking and how the brain responds to the task, Freedman said.

This gives us a place to start looking in the brains of older adults, especially healthy ones.

Expanding this research toolder adultscould guide scientists to identify a possible marker for super agers or people who have a minimal decline in cognitive functions. This marker would be useful in helping better understand what could be going awry in neurodegenerative diseases.

Author: Press OfficeSource: University of RochesterContact: Press Office University of RochesterImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.Young adults who improve performance during dual-task walking show more flexible reallocation of cognitive resources: a mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) study by Eleni Patelaki et al. Cerebral Cortex

Abstract

Young adults who improve performance during dual-task walking show more flexible reallocation of cognitive resources: a mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) study

In young adults, pairing a cognitive task with walking can have different effects on gait and cognitive task performance. In some cases, performance clearly declines whereas in others compensatory mechanisms maintain performance. This study investigates the preliminary finding of behavioral improvement in Go/NoGo response inhibition task performance during walking compared with sitting, which was observed at the piloting stage.

Mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI) was used to record electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, 3-dimensional (3D) gait kinematics and behavioral responses in the cognitive task, during sitting or walking on a treadmill.

In a cohort of 26 young adults, 14 participants improved in measures of cognitive task performance while walking compared with sitting. These participants exhibited walking-related EEG amplitude reductions over frontal scalp regions during key stages of inhibitory control (conflict monitoring, control implementation, and pre-motor stages), accompanied by reduced stride-to-stride variability and faster responses to stimuli compared with those who did not improve. In contrast, 12 participants who did not improve exhibited no EEG amplitude differences across physical condition.

The neural activity changes associated with performance improvement during dual tasking hold promise as cognitive flexibility markers that can potentially help assess cognitive decline in aging and neurodegeneration.

See the article here:
Walking Gives the Brain a 'Step-Up' in Function for Some - Neuroscience News