Differentiating the effects of motor and cognitive dual-tasks on gait performance of young healthy subjects

The purpose of this work was to analyze the variation of some gait descriptors when additional tasks (motor and cognitive with low and high load levels) were performed during walking, in 10 young healthy subjects. From one inertial sensor located at lumbar level, spatio-temporal parameters and measures of acceleration and jerk root mean square were extracted. The latter were normalized to make them independent from gait speed variations occurred during the different trials. Statistical analysis showed significant differences on the most of parameters between single and high cognitive level walking: the variations in acceleration-related measures were associated to a worsen in the walking balance, and those reported in jerk ones to a change in the smoothness, leading to an alteration in gait stability. The other two conditions presented just a trend, maybe due to the too low complexity of the tasks for the chosen population.