Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine how individuals modulate attention in a gait/cognition dual task during a 4-week period following a concussion. Ten individuals suffering from a grade 2 concussion and 10 matched controls performed a single task of level walking, a seated auditory Stroop task and a simultaneous auditory Stroop and walking task. Reaction time and accuracy were measured from the Stroop task. Dynamic balance control during gait was measured by the interaction (displacement and velocity) between the center of mass (CoM) and center of pressure (CoP) in the coronal and sagittal planes. Concussed individuals shifted from conservative control of balance (shorter separation between CoM and CoP) immediately after injury to normal balance control over 28 days post-injury. Immediately after injury, correlations analyses using each subject on each testing day as a data point showed that there was a spectrum of deficient performance among concussed individuals on the first testing day. Within a testing session, deficiencies in reaction time of processing involved in the Stroop task were commonly seen with reduce dynamic balance control. However, the prioritization was not always towards the same task between trials. There were no correlations in the control group. Information provided in this study would enhance our understanding of the interaction between attention and gait following concussion.
Highlights
Previous research has demonstrated the use of attention to modulate balance control and cognition when the two are used/needed simultaneously [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
Subjects were divided into two groups: ten subjects suffering from concussion or mild traumatic brain injury and ten controls without injury (Cont)
3.1 Group comparisons of Stroop and balance performance Analyses of Stroop reaction time separated by group, testing day and task specifics indicated no statistically significant differences during seated (p = 0.556) or walking trials (p = 0.735)
Summary
Previous research has demonstrated the use of attention to modulate balance control and cognition when the two are used/needed simultaneously [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Divided attention has been shown to cause gait imbalance after concussion [5], the interaction between cognition and gait has not been outlined following concussion How this interaction presents itself, as either a prioritization (a shift of attention towards one task at the cost of the other) of a particular task or an overall reduction in performance in both tasks, and how it changes over time after brain injury, has not been examined. The interaction between deficits in spatial orientation of attention and obstacle clearance decreased by 6 days after the concussion, and was no longer present at 14 days. These results implied that there exists a strong interaction between attention and motor control when individuals are suffering the full effects of the concussion, but as the injury is transient so is the interaction. The tasks that were used in previous studies were not able to discern how attention modulates the interaction between dynamic imbalance and cognitive deficits following a concussion
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