Age-related changes in the interference between cognitive task components and concurrent sensorimotor coordination

Mitra, S ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7620-4809, Boatman, CA ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4634-5835 and Baker, J ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8133-7622, 2022. Age-related changes in the interference between cognitive task components and concurrent sensorimotor coordination. Brain Research, 1790: 147985. ISSN 0006-8993

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Abstract

Continuous sensorimotor coordinations (CSCs) such as driving, walking, using control interfaces or maintaining the body's balance are often performed alongside concurrent cognitive tasks involving attention and executive function. A range of these task combinations show interference, particularly in older adults, but the timing, direction and reciprocity of interference is not yet understood at the level of the tasks' information-processing operations. This paper compares the chronometry of dual task interference between a visual oddball task and a continuous visuomanual tracking task performed by young and older adults. The oddball task's constituent operations were identified using electrophysiological correlates, and deviations in the tracking task reflected perturbations to state monitoring and adjustment characteristics of CSC tasks. Despite instructions to give equal priority to both tasks, older participants maintained a high level of resourcing of the oddball task when dual tasking whereas young participants reduced resourcing to accommodate the demands of the tracking task. Older participants had a longer period of tracking inaccuracy during the executive function component of the oddball task, and unlike in young participants, this decrement was also observed when the stimulus was not a target and the executive function of updating the target tally was not required. These detailed chronometric results clarify that age-related amplification of CSC-cognitive interference are largely due to greater inflexibility in task pri-oritization. Prioritization of the cognitive task over the CSC in this type of dual tasking may have safety implications in everyday task settings.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Brain Research
Creators:	Mitra, S., Boatman, C.A. and Baker, J.
Publisher:	Elsevier BV
Date:	1 September 2022
Volume:	1790
ISSN:	0006-8993
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.brainres.2022.147985 DOI 1590094 Other
Rights:	© 2022 Nottingham Trent University. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	07 Oct 2022 14:54
Last Modified:	07 Oct 2022 14:54
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/47224

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