Motor adaptation to cognitive challenges and walking perturbations in healthy young adults

Cognitive-walking interference is manifested when simultaneously performing a cognitive task while walking. However, majority of the dual-task walking paradigms incorporated relatively short testing trials and were focused on posing a cognitive challenge by adding a secondary cognitive task but not introducing walking perturbations. How do healthy young adults adapt to concurrent cognitive challenges and walking perturbations in terms of task prioritization and adaptation strategies to control walking stability? Eighteen healthy young participants walked with and without (1) continuous treadmill platform sways (Perturbed and Unperturbed walking), and (2) performing one of the cognitive tasks: visual and auditory Stroop tasks, Clock task, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), and walk only. Primary outcome measures included cognitive task performance, mediolateral dynamic margins of stability (MOSML), M-L local dynamic stability, stride time variability and the dual-task interference (DTI) on these measures. Gait adjustments made during Perturbed walking did not improve walking stability but instead, showing more local instability and greater gait variability (all p