Aging on the Move - "Stop Walking when Talking" as an Extreme Compensatory Strategy against Cognitive-Motor Interference
Tue—Casino_1.801—Poster2—5007
Presented by: Tian Zhou
With increasing challenges in walking and the unaffordable consequences of balance loss, older adults have fewer available cognitive resources to allocate to additional tasks. Consequently, they are more likely to prioritize postural control during cognitive-motor dual-tasking. The phenomenon of "Stops Walking When Talking" has been identified as an extreme compensatory strategy to manage cognitive-motor interference and reduce the risk of falls. This phenomenon has been proven as a strong predictor of falls in older adults. Building on the paradigm and findings from Theill et al. (2011), we conducted a retrospective study analyzing data from over 2,500 older adults. We compared single-task performance in cognitive tasks (e.g., animal naming or backward counting) and a motor task (walking approximately 10 meters) with dual-task performance when participants simultaneously walked and performed one of the cognitive tasks. Our analysis replicated significant declines in performance (walking speed, number of correct animal names, and correct numbers counted) under dual-task conditions compared to single-task conditions. Interestingly, dual-tasking was found to be particularly costly for older adults who exhibited "Stops Walking When Talking" behavior but did not report a fear of falling. With additional data collected subsequently, we aim to expand on these findings by employing advanced statistical models to further quantify the extent of dual-task costs and their predictive value for "Stops Walking When Talking" behavior and fall risk in older adults.
Keywords: cognitive-motor interference, cognitive aging, cognitive and motor control