Abstract
One growing area of multitasking research involves a focus on performing cognitive and motor tasks in tandem. In these situations, increasing either cognitive or motor demands has implications for performance in both tasks, an effect which is thought to be due to competing neural resources. Separate research suggests that non-invasive brain stimulation may offer a means to mitigate performance decrements experienced during multitasking. In the present study, we investigated the degree to which a commercially available non-invasive brain stimulation device (Halo Sport) alters balance performance in the presence of different types of cognitive demands. Specifically, we tested if performing a secondary cognitive task impacts postural sway in healthy young adults and if we could mitigate this impact using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied over the primary motor cortex. Furthermore, we included conditions of unstable and stable surfaces and found that lower surface stability increased postural sway. In addition, we found that cognitive load impacted postural sway but in the opposite pattern we had anticipated, with higher sway found in the single-task control condition compared to executive function conditions. Finally, we found a small but significant effect of tDCS on balance with decreased sway for active (compared to sham) tDCS.
Highlights
For many decades, researchers thought that maintaining balance was an entirely automatic task; we have strong evidence that standing upright involves attention [1,2]
We found that cognitive load impacted postural sway but in the opposite pattern we had anticipated, with higher sway found in the single-task control condition compared to executive function conditions
For the postural sway data, we conducted a 2 × 5 × 2 mixed-model ANOVA
Summary
Researchers thought that maintaining balance was an entirely automatic task; we have strong evidence that standing upright involves attention [1,2]. Further evidence comes from cognitive–motor multitasking paradigms that focus on costs when combining cognitive and postural tasks [5,6,7]. These costs may stem from competition for attentional resources [8,9] or from bottlenecks in our information-processing architecture [10]. The magnitude of cognitive–motor multitasking costs varies according to both motor and cognitive demands [15], and often we see even greater interference in older adults [16]
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