Trunk balance control during beam walking improves with the haptic anchors without the interference of an auditory-cognitive task in older adults.

Background: Prior studies have shown that older adults reduced trunk acceleration when walking on a balance beam with haptic inputs provided by anchors; however, it is unknown whether these benefits would remain in the presence of a concurrent cognitive task.

Research Question: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a cognitive task on balance control when using the anchors while walking on a balance beam in older adults.

Methods: Thirty older adults participated in this study.

The Critical Point to Step into a Hole is Similar in Young and Older Adults.

The avoidance of a hole in the pathway while walking has been systematically investigated; however, depending on the dimensions of the hole, the option to avoid it is infeasible, and it is necessary to use the so-called accommodation strategy to step into the hole. We investigated the critical point between the avoidance and accommodation strategies when dealing with a hole in the ground during locomotion of young and older adults. Young and older adults performed two tasks: verbal estimation and walking.

Effect of a cognitive task on online adjustments when avoiding stepping on an obstacle and stepping on a target during walking in young adults.

During locomotion, we respond to environmental and task changes by adjusting steps length and width. Different protocols involving stepping on targets and obstacle avoidance suggest the involvement of cortical and subcortical pathways in these online adjustments. The addition of a concomitant cognitive task (CT) can affect these online corrections depending on the neural pathway used.