Training-induced plasticity of multitasking in everyday-like motor behavior

许多日常生活活动涉及感觉运动和认知多任务处理。经常被引用的例子是开车、准备正式的饭菜、控制工业机械和在繁忙的交通中过马路。然而，多任务表现随着年龄的增长而下降，在老龄化社会的背景下，这可能会给日常生活带来问题。这些不同的趋势要求训练计划建立在已知的训练诱导的多任务可塑性的基础上，这些任务需要感觉运动的表现。目前尚不清楚需要如何设计培训制度来有效和高效地改善日常生活中的多任务表现。理论家们提出，执行功能可能有助于多任务处理，尤其是在老年人，因此执行功能的训练可能会对多任务表现产生积极影响。因此，我们的目标是调查执行功能是否以及哪些功能有助于日常的多任务处理，以及这种作用在年轻人和老年人之间是否不同。进一步，我们将研究在生态有效的背景下，加强某些执行功能的训练干预是否会对多任务处理产生有益和可转移的影响。我们提出了三个互补的工作包。WP1将评估年轻人和老年人执行功能在多任务处理中的作用，WP2将探索这一贡献的神经元相关性，WP3将研究老年人多任务处理训练诱导的可塑性。由于实验室的范例不一定能转移到现实生活中，我们将探索在现实情况下的多任务处理。由于训练的好处已被证明是特定任务的，我们将使用两种截然不同的现实感觉运动多任务：驾驶汽车和过马路。我们的发现将有助于多任务处理的理论概念，并为预防与年龄相关的衰退开辟一条途径。

Many activities of daily life involve sensorimotor and cognitive multitasking. Often-cited examples are driving a car, preparing a formal meal, controlling industrial machinery and crossing a street in busy traffic. Multitask performance, however, declines with increasing age, which might cause problems for everyday life in the context of an aging society. These diverging trends call for training programs that build upon the known training-induced plasticity of multitasking in tasks requiring sensorimotor performance. It is still not clear how training regimes need to be designed to effectively and efficiently improve multitask performance in everyday life. Theorists have proposed that executive functions might contribute towards multitasking, particularly in old age, and that training of executive functions therefore might positively influence multitask performance. Thus, we aim to investigate whether and which executive functions contribute to everyday-like multitasking and whether this contribution differs between young and older adults. Further we will investigate whether training interventions that strengthen certain executive functions might gain beneficial and transferable effect on multitasking in ecologically valid contexts. We propose three complementary work packages (WPs). WP1 will evaluate the role of executive functions for multitasking in young versus older adults, WP2 will explore the neuronal correlates of this contribution, and WP3 will address the training-induced plasticity of multitasking in older persons. Since laboratory paradigms do not necessarily transfer to real life, we will explore multitasking in realistic situations. As training benefits have been shown to be task-specific, we will use two widely different realistic sensorimotor multitasks: car driving and street crossing. Our findings will contribute towards theoretical concepts of multitasking, and open up an avenue for preventive measures against age-related decay.