The Role of Cognition When Executing an Online, Visually Evoked Adjustment to an Obstacle Circumvention Strategy

Abstract

We know that performing simultaneous cognitive tasks during locomotion results in reduced performance on either or both tasks, however the role of the cognitive system in the execution of last-minute changes to ongoing adaptive locomotor tasks is not fully understood. Nineteen participants were initially cued to circumvent to left, right, or step over an obstacle while an auditory cognitive task was simultaneously presented. In half of the trials, no change in avoidance strategy was required; in the remaining trials, participants were visually cued two steps in advance to execute a new circumvention strategy. Participants decreased gait velocity and increased cognitive task response times when executing changes in strategy, highlighting the important role the cognitive system plays in these complex tasks.

Keywords:

• gait
• obstacle circumvention
• Stroop task
• visual integration

Acknowledgments

We would like to extend our thanks to our participants from the University of Guelph and surrounding community for dedicating their time to this project. We would like to thank Ms. Keara Sutherland for assistance during data collection and processing. As well, we thank Chris Norman for his work constructing our obstacle apparatus and valuable support from our volunteer research assistants during data collection and analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by a Discovery Grant and a Research Tools and Instrument Grant awarded to LAV from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, as well as by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship awarded to JP.