Changes in Cortical Activity during Preferred and Fast Speed Walking under Single- and Dual-Tasks in the Young-Old and Old-Old Elderly

Abstract

In the elderly, walking while simultaneously engaging in other activities becomes more difficult. This study aimed to examine the changes in cortical activity during walking with aging. We try to reveal the effects of an additional task and increased walking speed on cortical activation in the young-old and the old-old elderly. Twenty-seven young-old (70.2 ± 3.0 years) and 23 old-old (78.0 ± 2.3 years) participated in this study. Each subject completed four walking tasks on the treadmill, a 2 × 2 design; two single-task (ST) walking conditions with self-selected walking speed (SSWS) and fast walking speed (FWS), and two dual-task (DT) walking conditions with SSWS and FWS. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy was applied for measurement of cerebral oxyhemoglobin (oxyHb) concentration during walking. Cortical activities were increased during DT conditions compared with ST conditions but decreased during the FWS compared with the SSWS on the primary leg motor cortex, supplementary motor area, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in both the young-old and the old-old. These oxyHb concentration changes were significantly less prominent in the old-old than in the young-old. This study demonstrated that changes in cortical activity during dual-task walking are lower in the old-old than in the young-old, reflecting the reduced adaptive plasticity with severe aging.

A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study on hemodynamic changes of patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness responding to different auditory stimuli

“…Therefore, the reliability of the slope needs further research, and the mean change in the oxygenated hemoglobin concentration is a stable indicator. In the current study, we found that the prefrontal HbO/HbR was negative in healthy controls under two stimuli, which is consistent with previous ndings [25,44]. Holper identi ed this phenomenon as a decrease in HBO and⁄or an increase in HBR as "inverse oxygenation responses" or "negative activation", which is often observed during MI tasks or other mental tasks and may be associated with speci c tasks or with inhibition of activation in other brain regions [45].…”

A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study on hemodynamic changes of patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness responding to different auditory stimuli

“…HbO is an effective physiologic index to describe the oxyhemoglobin content and oxygen molecular energy supply in the brain region, which can indirectly indicate the cerebral cortex's metabolic and functional activity intensity [41,42]. In the current study, we found that the prefrontal HbO/HbR was negative in HC under two stimuli (Figs.…”

Effect of automaticity induced by treadmill walking on prefrontal cortex activation and dual-task performance in older adults

“…Stuart et al [ 22 ] found that older adults showed activation in the premotor, supplementary motor, and primary motor areas during dual-task treadmill walking, but without PFC activation [ 13 ]. In previous study, it was found that improved automaticity during dual-task walking on treadmills reduced the activation of the PFC in older adults [ 57 ]. Dual-task treadmill walking has been shown to maintain task performance while reducing PFC activation compared to overground walking [ 56 ].…”