Article

Assessing the effects of attention-demanding tasks on trunk movement provides
useful insights into postural control while walking in an attention-split
situation, such as occurs in daily life. The coefficient of attenuation of
acceleration (CoA) at the trunk is a useful gait index to assess whole trunk
movements. We investigated the effect of attention-demanding tasks on CoA to
assess the role of attention on trunk control during walking. Thirty healthy,
community-dwelling older adults (70.1+/-5.6 years) and 38 younger adults
(22.1+/-3.4 years) participated in this study. Participants walked 20 m at a
self-selected speed (slow, normal, fast) and while performing an
attention-demanding cognitive task. Trunk acceleration was measured using
triaxial accelerometers attached to the lower (L3 spinous process) and upper (C7
spinous process) trunk and used to compute CoA (the reduction in acceleration
from the lower to upper trunk). Results showed that an attention-demanding task
significantly decreased CoA in the medio-lateral (ML) direction in both age
groups (p<0.001), whereas it did not affect CoA in the vertical (VT) and
anterior-posterior (AP) directions. Our findings suggest that the priority of
whole trunk control in the ML direction may be higher than in other directions
and be strongly associated with attention, whereas whole trunk control in the VT
and AP directions may be passively regulated and require minimal attentional
control.
CI - Copyright (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS