Abstract

Background

The aging process alters upright posture and locomotion control from an automatically processed to a more cortically controlled one. The present study investigated a postural-cognitive dual-task paradigm in young and older adults using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Methods

Twenty healthy participants (10 older adults 72 ± 3 y, 10 young adults 23 ± 3 y) performed a cognitive (serial subtractions) and a postural task (tandem stance) as single-tasks (ST) and concurrently as a dual-task (DT) while the oxygenation levels of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) were measured.

Results

In the cognitive task, young adults performed better than older adults in both conditions (ST and DT) and could further increase the number of correct answers from ST to DT (all ps ≤ 0.027) while no change was found for older adults. No significant effects were found for the postural performance. Cerebral oxygenation values (O2Hb) increased significantly from baseline to the postural ST (p = 0.033), and from baseline to the DT (p = 0.031) whereas no changes were found in deoxygenated hemoglobin (HHb). Finally, the perceived exertion differed between all conditions (p ≤ 0.003) except for the postural ST and the DT (p = 0.204).

Conclusions

There was a general lack of age-related changes except the better cognitive performance under motor-cognitive conditions in young compared to older adults. However, the current results point out that DLPFC is influenced more strongly by postural than cognitive load. Future studies should assess the different modalities of cognitive as well as postural load.

Details

Title
Aging effects on prefrontal cortex oxygenation in a posture-cognition dual-task: an fNIRS pilot study
Author
Marusic, Uros; Taube, Wolfgang; Morrison, Shawnda A; Biasutti, Lea; Grassi, Bruno; De Pauw, Kevin; Meeusen, Romain; Pisot, Rado; Ruffieux, Jan
Publication year
2019
Publication date
2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
ISSN
18137253
e-ISSN
18616909
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2168578630
Copyright
Copyright © 2019. This work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.