Attentional demands and postural recovery: The effects of aging
Attentional demands and postural recovery: The effects of aging
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DOI：
10.1093/gerona/54.4.m165
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发表时间：
1999-04-01
影响因子：
5.1
通讯作者：
Woollacott, MH
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brown, LA;Shumway-Cook, A;Woollacott, MH
背景与平衡和运动相关的认知需求可能导致老年人跌倒的发生率。本研究旨在探讨老化对从外部干扰中恢复平衡的注意力需求的影响。本研究还调查了是否执行一个次要的认知任务差异影响姿势恢复年轻人与老年人。15名年轻人和10名健康的老年人暴露于一系列的平衡障碍。注意力的需求进行了评估，使用双任务范式，姿势恢复作为主要任务，向后计数作为并发的次要认知任务。通过比较与原地踏步和原地踏步恢复策略相关的运动学变量来评估计数任务的效果。在两个年龄组中，恢复直立姿势都需要注意力。恢复策略的类型并没有影响注意力的需求，在年轻人，然而，层次结构之间的脚踝策略和补偿步进的注意力需求增加是明显的老年人。此外，老年人比年轻人更需要注意力。倒计时并不影响使用的策略类型，但是，它确实影响了步进的运动学。对于两个年龄组，步骤发生时，质量中心位于一个更中心的位置内的基础上的支持时，次要任务被添加。在外部干扰后恢复稳定姿势的能力对于老年人比年轻人更需要注意。这表明，对于一些老年人来说，如果没有分配足够的注意力资源来完成姿势恢复任务，则可能会导致失去平衡和福尔斯跌倒的风险增加。
Background. Cognitive demands associated with balance and locomotion may contribute to the incidence of falling among older adults. This study addressed issues related to the effects of aging on the attentional demands of recovering from an external disturbance to balance. This research also investigated whether performing a secondary cognitive task differentially affects postural recovery in young versus older adults.Method. Fifteen young and 10 healthy older adults were exposed to a series of balance disturbances. Attentional demands were assessed using a dual task paradigm where postural recovery served as the primary task, and counting backwards served as a concurrent secondary cognitive task. The effect of the counting task was assessed by comparing kinematic variables related to feet-in-place and stepping recovery strategies.Results. Recovering upright stance was found to be attentionally demanding in both age groups. The type of recovery strategy did not influence attentional demands in young adults; however, a hierarchy of increasing attentional demands between the ankle strategy and compensatory stepping was apparent among older adults. In addition, stepping appears to be more attentionally demanding for older adults than for younger adults. Counting backwards did not affect the type of strategy used; however, it did affect the kinematics of stepping. For both age groups, steps occurred when the center of mass was located in a more central location within the base of support when the secondary task was added.Conclusions. The ability to recover a stable posture following an external perturbation is more attentionally demanding for older adults than for younger adults. This would suggest that for some older adults, an increased risk for loss of balance and falls may result if sufficient attentional resources are nor allocated to the task of postural recovery.