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Abstract
It has been proposed that motor adaptation and subsequent savings (or faster relearning) of an adapted movement pattern are mediated by cognitive processes. Here, we evaluated the pattern of cognitive-motor interference that emerges when young and late middle-aged adults perform an executive working memory task during locomotor adaptation. We also asked if this interferes with savings of a newly learned walking pattern, as has been suggested by a study of reaching adaptation. We studied split-belt treadmill adaptation and savings in young (21 ± 2 y/o) and late middle-aged (56 ± 6 y/o) adults with or without a secondary 2-back task during adaptation. We found that young adults showed similar performance on the 2-back task during baseline and adaptation, suggesting no effect of the dual-task on cognitive performance; however, dual-tasking interfered with adaptation over the first few steps. Conversely, dual-tasking caused a decrement in cognitive performance in late middle-aged adults with no effect on adaptation. To determine if this effect was specific to adaptation, we also evaluated dual-task interference in late middle-aged adults that dual-tasked while walking in a complex environment that did not induce motor adaptation. This group exhibited less cognitive-motor interference than late middle-aged adults who dual-tasked during adaptation. Savings was unaffected by dual-tasking in both young and late middle-aged adults, which may indicate different underlying mechanisms for savings of reaching and walking. Collectively, our findings reveal an age-dependent effect of cognitive-motor interference during dual-task locomotor adaptation and no effect of dual-tasking on savings, regardless of age. Young adults maintain cognitive performance and show a mild decrement in locomotor adaptation, while late middle-aged adults adapt locomotion at the expense of cognitive performance.
Highlights
Sensorimotor adaptation is a form of motor learning that occurs in response to a sensory prediction error caused by a sustained, predictable perturbation in the environment (Martin et al, 1996; Bastian, 2008; Shadmehr et al, 2010)
Dual-tasking caused a decrement in cognitive performance in late middle-aged adults with no effect on adaptation. To determine if this effect was specific to adaptation, we evaluated dual-task interference in late middle-aged adults that dual-tasked while walking in a complex environment that did not induce motor adaptation
The goals of Experiment 1 were (1) to identify the pattern of cognitive-motor interference in young adults who performed a cognitive task while simultaneously learning a new walking pattern through adaptation and (2) to determine the impact of dual-tasking during locomotor adaptation on savings of the newly learned walking pattern
Summary
Sensorimotor adaptation is a form of motor learning that occurs in response to a sensory prediction error caused by a sustained, predictable perturbation in the environment (Martin et al, 1996; Bastian, 2008; Shadmehr et al, 2010). Evidence for a contribution of cognitive processes to sensorimotor adaptation comes from studies of upper extremity movements (for review in Taylor and Ivry, 2014; McDougle et al, 2016). This body of work demonstrates that, in addition to an implicit movement recalibration in response to a perturbation (e.g., a visuomotor rotation of reach angle), participants develop an explicit strategy to voluntarily adjust or aim their reaching movements to consciously counteract the perturbation. The development of these explicit movement strategies is thought to involve cognitive processes, such as executive control (Taylor and Thoroughman, 2008) and working memory (Seidler et al, 2010), which are mediated by structures in the prefrontal cortex (for review in Taylor and Ivry, 2012, 2014)
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