Coincidence Anticipation Timing Performance during an Acute Bout of Brisk Walking in Older Adults: Effect of Stimulus Speed

Michael J Duncan,Sheila Leddington Wright,Michelle Stanley,Michael J Price,Mike Smith

doi:10.1155/2015/210213

Abstract

This study examined coincidence anticipation timing (CAT) performance at slow and fast stimulus speeds before, during, and after an acute bout of walking in adults aged 60–76 years. Results from a series of repeated measures ANOVAs indicated significant rest versus exercise × stimulus speed × time interactions for absolute and variable errors (both P = 0.0001) whereby absolute and variable error scores, when stimulus speed was slow, improved as the duration of exercise increased. When stimulus speed was fast there were significantly greater absolute and variable errors at 18 minutes of the walking bout. There was also greater error at 18 minutes during walking compared to rest. These results suggest that, in a task involving walking and CAT, stimulus speeds plays an important role; specifically walking (exercise) enhances CAT performance at slow stimulus speeds but reduces CAT performance at fast stimulus speeds. The implications are that in everyday situations, where events require dual-task responses to be made at different speeds, for example, walking on the pavement whilst avoiding a crowd, compared to crossing a busy road, an understanding of how different stimulus speeds influence dual-task performance is extremely important, particularly in the older adult population.

Highlights

In everyday life, irrespective of age, it is common that in a primary task such as walking the person will engage in a secondary task involving some aspects of cognitive, perceptual, or motor control [1]
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different stimulus speeds on coincidence anticipation timing (CAT) performance in older adults before, during, and after exercise in a sample of healthy older adults
The current study suggests that CAT performance was improved during and immediately after exercise, compared to rest, but only when stimulus speed was slow (i.e., 3 mph)

Summary

Introduction

Irrespective of age, it is common that in a primary task such as walking the person will engage in a secondary task involving some aspects of cognitive, perceptual, or motor control [1]. While walking is considered a more automated task in younger adults, it is already known that young adults adopt a slower walking speed under dualtask conditions [2]. Dual-task conditions pose an interesting paradigm for understanding the effect of walking (acute exercise) in older adults. Recent research has suggested that in dual-task processing paradigms, where the primary task involves locomotion, performance of a secondary visual task is significantly impaired in older adults [1, 4, 5]. Few studies have examined this empirically [6] with Beurskens and Bock [1]

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