The effect of different types of cognitive tasks on postural sway fluctuations in older and younger adults: A nonlinear study

Background: There are numerous types of cognitive tasks classified as mental tracking (MT), working memory (WM), reaction time (RT), discrimination and decision-making and verbal fluency (VF). However, limited studies have investigated the effects of cognitive task type on postural control in older adults.Purpose: s: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of aging and several types of cognitive tasks on postural control in terms of nonlinear analysis.Method: Postural control was investigated under 6 conditions (single task and dual-task with RT; easy and difficult VF; easy and difficult WM; easy and difficult MT. Outcome measurements were the max Lyapunov, entropy, and correlation dimension at anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) directions.Results: The results revealed that within the older group, the AP & ML max Lyapunov at dual-task with difficult WM and MT was significantly higher than all other conditions. In addition, the older group had lower AP entropy at dual-task with easy VF, difficult WM, and easy as well as difficult MT.Conclusion: The results can be useful to understand the postural control mechanisms and to detect the alterations following aging and applying different types of cognitive tasks. In addition, the investigated parameters can be a basis for identifying postural control deficiencies.

Automated summary

This study investigated the effects of various cognitive tasks on postural control in older adults. The results showed that postural control was significantly affected during complex working memory and mental tracking tasks, while there were no significant changes during simple verbal fluency tasks.