Your brain on speed: cognitive performance of a spatial working memory task is not affected by walking speed

When humans walk in everyday life, they typically perform a range of cognitive tasks while they are on the move. Past studies examining performance changes in dual cognitive-motor tasks during walking have produced a variety of results. These discrepancies may be related to the type of cognitive tas...

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Main Authors: Julia eKline, Katherine ePoggensee, Daniel P Ferris
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-05-01
Series:Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Subjects:
EEG
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00288/full
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spelling doaj-e2cdeb2101bd47a49ad4f7bedff204422020-11-25T02:19:05ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612014-05-01810.3389/fnhum.2014.0028887282Your brain on speed: cognitive performance of a spatial working memory task is not affected by walking speedJulia eKline0Katherine ePoggensee1Daniel P Ferris2Daniel P Ferris3University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganUniversity of MichiganUniversity of MichiganWhen humans walk in everyday life, they typically perform a range of cognitive tasks while they are on the move. Past studies examining performance changes in dual cognitive-motor tasks during walking have produced a variety of results. These discrepancies may be related to the type of cognitive task chosen, differences in the walking speeds studied, or lack of controlling for walking speed. The goal of this study was to determine how young, healthy subjects performed a spatial working memory task over a range of walking speeds. We used high-density electroencephalography to determine if electrocortical activity mirrored changes in cognitive performance across speeds. Subjects stood (0.0 m/s) and walked (0.4, 0.8, 1.2, and 1.6 m/s) with and without performing a Brooks spatial working memory task. We hypothesized that performance of the spatial working memory task and the associated electrocortical activity would decrease significantly with walking speed. Across speeds, the spatial working memory task caused subjects to step more widely compared with walking without the task. This is typically a sign that humans are adapting their gait dynamics to increase gait stability. Several cortical areas exhibited power fluctuations time-locked to memory encoding during the cognitive task. In the somatosensory association cortex, alpha power increased prior to stimulus presentation and decreased during memory encoding. There were small significant reductions in theta power in the right superior parietal lobule and the posterior cingulate cortex around memory encoding. However, the subjects did not show a significant change in cognitive task performance or electrocortical activity with walking speed. These findings indicate that in young, healthy subjects walking speed does not affect performance of a spatial working memory task. These subjects can devote adequate cortical resources to spatial cognition when needed, regardless of walking speed.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00288/fullLocomotionEEGbrain imagingspatial working memorydual-tasking
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Julia eKline
Katherine ePoggensee
Daniel P Ferris
Daniel P Ferris
spellingShingle Julia eKline
Katherine ePoggensee
Daniel P Ferris
Daniel P Ferris
Your brain on speed: cognitive performance of a spatial working memory task is not affected by walking speed
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Locomotion
EEG
brain imaging
spatial working memory
dual-tasking
author_facet Julia eKline
Katherine ePoggensee
Daniel P Ferris
Daniel P Ferris
author_sort Julia eKline
title Your brain on speed: cognitive performance of a spatial working memory task is not affected by walking speed
title_short Your brain on speed: cognitive performance of a spatial working memory task is not affected by walking speed
title_full Your brain on speed: cognitive performance of a spatial working memory task is not affected by walking speed
title_fullStr Your brain on speed: cognitive performance of a spatial working memory task is not affected by walking speed
title_full_unstemmed Your brain on speed: cognitive performance of a spatial working memory task is not affected by walking speed
title_sort your brain on speed: cognitive performance of a spatial working memory task is not affected by walking speed
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
series Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
issn 1662-5161
publishDate 2014-05-01
description When humans walk in everyday life, they typically perform a range of cognitive tasks while they are on the move. Past studies examining performance changes in dual cognitive-motor tasks during walking have produced a variety of results. These discrepancies may be related to the type of cognitive task chosen, differences in the walking speeds studied, or lack of controlling for walking speed. The goal of this study was to determine how young, healthy subjects performed a spatial working memory task over a range of walking speeds. We used high-density electroencephalography to determine if electrocortical activity mirrored changes in cognitive performance across speeds. Subjects stood (0.0 m/s) and walked (0.4, 0.8, 1.2, and 1.6 m/s) with and without performing a Brooks spatial working memory task. We hypothesized that performance of the spatial working memory task and the associated electrocortical activity would decrease significantly with walking speed. Across speeds, the spatial working memory task caused subjects to step more widely compared with walking without the task. This is typically a sign that humans are adapting their gait dynamics to increase gait stability. Several cortical areas exhibited power fluctuations time-locked to memory encoding during the cognitive task. In the somatosensory association cortex, alpha power increased prior to stimulus presentation and decreased during memory encoding. There were small significant reductions in theta power in the right superior parietal lobule and the posterior cingulate cortex around memory encoding. However, the subjects did not show a significant change in cognitive task performance or electrocortical activity with walking speed. These findings indicate that in young, healthy subjects walking speed does not affect performance of a spatial working memory task. These subjects can devote adequate cortical resources to spatial cognition when needed, regardless of walking speed.
topic Locomotion
EEG
brain imaging
spatial working memory
dual-tasking
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00288/full
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