Impact Of Cognitive Demands Research Articles

Impact of Cognitive Demand on Eye Movement Pattern in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease.

Eye-movement behavior has been used as a reliable tool to identify cognitive and behavioral patterns in individuals with different neuropsychiatric disorders including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Most studies in the field have been dedicated to evaluating eye-movement behavior during cognitive tasks in different protocols using multiple parameters. We aimed to evaluate the differences of eye-movement behavior in healthy subjects, subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and those with AD in a simple color task with and without cognitive demand. 91 subjects: 18 AD, 47 MCI, and 26 healthy controls had their oculomotor parameters assessed during baseline (no cognitive demand involved) and during a simple computational color memory task using an eye-tracker. Baseline showed statistically different and heterogeneous results between normal cognition and MCI groups. Familiarization phase of the task could not discriminate between groups in any of the analyzed parameters. AD subjects made longer fixations and visits on distractors, and more frequent fixations and visits on the target areas than other groups during the response phase. Eye-tracking time-related parameters differentiate AD subjects from other groups under cognitive demand even in a simple color memory task.

The Impact of Cognitive Demands on Attention to Facial versus Situational Cues When Judging Emotions

What information guides how perceivers evaluate people’s emotional experiences? Some regard expressive fa- cial cues to be the critical source of information whereas others argue that situational cues exert the decisive im- pact. This research explored an alternative view suggesting that both information sources are of consequence and that cognitive demands placed on perceivers play a pivotal role in determining what information they use. To test this view, perceivers were given discrepant combinations of facial and situational information about peo- ple’s emotional experiences and identified what emotions they felt. Facial information influenced perceivers’ judgments most often when demands were placed on their cognitive resources. In contrast, situational information had the greatest impact when cognitive demands were minimized. These findings shed light on the debate surrounding the issue of facial versus situational dominance and the process by which emotion judgments are made.

Walking speed during single and dual tasks in Parkinson's disease: Which characteristics are important?

The impact of dual tasks on gait in Parkinson's disease (PD) reveals lack of automaticity and increased cognitive demands. We explored which characteristics explained walking speed with and without dual task interference and if they reflected the cognitive demands of the task. In 130 people with PD, gait performance was quantified in the home using accelerometers allowing estimates of single and dual task walking speed and interference (difference between dual and single task). Multiple regression analysis was used to explore the effect of 12 characteristics representing four domains (personal, motor symptoms, cognitive, affective) on gait outcomes. Thirty-seven percent of variance in single task speed was explained by increased fear of falling, sex, age, disease severity, and depression; 34% of variance in dual task speed was explained by increased fear of falling, disease severity, medication, and depression; 12% of variance in interference scores was explained by greater disease severity and impaired executive function. Personal, motor, affective, and cognitive characteristics contribute to walking speed and interference, highlighting the multifactorial nature of gait. Different patterns of characteristics for each outcome indicates the impact of cognitive demand and task complexity, providing cautious support for dual task speed and interference as valid proxy measures of cognitive demand in PD gait.