Concurrent Cognitive Task Performance Facilitates Speed Of Cycling.

Abstract

PURPOSE:Multi-tasking is common to daily life and it is assumed people have a limited capacity, experiencing performance decrements during multiple concurrent tasks. Surprisingly, we recently documented that older adults and individuals with Parkinson’s disease cycled faster during a battery of cognitive tests (Altmann et al., 2015). Our purpose was to determine whether this beneficial effect extends to younger populations or if it is only observed in a compromised cognitive-motor system. METHODS:Seventeen young healthy adults (20± 1 y) and twenty-two healthy older adults (73 ± 9 y) volunteered and provided informed consent. Each group completed a battery of cognitive tests in two conditions: seated in a quiet room (single task) and while exercising on a stationary cycle (dual task). Revolutions per minute (RPM) were measured by a motion analysis system. The magnitude of change in cycling cadence during each cognitive test was determined with Dual Task Effects (DTE) = ((Dual Task RPM- Single Task (RPM)/Single Task (RPM) *100). The DTE for each task were analyzed in a 2 (group) x 14 (task) repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS:The ANOVA showed a main effect of task (p<.001), but no effect of group (p=.299). Both groups increased cycling cadence from baseline during each cognitive task, and the facilitation was not influenced by age. CONCLUSIONS:Young healthy adults also exhibit facilitated cycling behavior when performing concurrent cognitive tasks. Increases to cycling cadence were found in all tasks except two, visual working memory and picture description. The greatest benefit to cycling performance was observed during the tasks that were less challenging and increases in cadence were minimal in the most cognitively demanding tasks.