Older adults with Hearing impairment show reduced walking performance under Dual-task (DT) conditions. This study investigates the neural correlates of DT performance while walking in this target group compared to healthy controls or younger adults. The Mobile Brain/Body Imaging approach (MoBI) allows for parallel analysis of performance, biomechanical and neuronal measures. The joint analysis helps to understand the brain dynamics underlying the interaction of cognitive and motor processes during different DT conditions (visual and auditory) controlling for age.
In a cross-sectional study, three groups will be compared by age (younger vs older adults) and by hearing impairment (mild vs not hearing impaired). Within-subject, the task complexity (single- vs DT) and cognitive task modality (visual vs auditory) will be contrasted. Dual task costs and their underlying neuronal correlates will be analyzed focusing either on gait or cognitive performance. So far, the data of 22 young and 5 older participants was recorded. Data recording is ongoing and aims for a sample size of 96 (48 healthy & 48 mildly hearing impaired) community-dwelling older adults (50-70 years) and 48 younger adults (20-30 years). The performance data shows already clear dual-task costs for the young participants in both modalities. Until the presentation the data recording will be also informative for the older participants.
The results will provide insight into cognitive-motor interference (CMI) and the underlying processes of the interaction between motor and cognitive tasks. We hypothesize that performance differences are associated with different cognitive-motor processes, i.e., stimulus intake, resource allocation, and movement execution.