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Task prioritization in aging: effects of sensory information on concurrent posture and memory performance

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Abstract

In older adults, cognitive resources play a key role in maintaining postural stability. In the present study, we evaluated whether increasing postural instability using sway referencing induces changes in resource allocation in dual-task performance leading older adults to prioritize the more age-salient posture task over a cognitive task. Young and older adults participated in the study which comprised two sessions. In the first session, three posture tasks (stable, sway reference visual, sway reference somatosensory) and a working memory task (n-back) were examined. In the second session, single- and dual-task performance of posture and memory were assessed. Postural stability improved with session. Participants were more unstable in the sway reference conditions, and pronounced age differences were observed in the somatosensory sway reference condition. In dual-task performance on the stable surface, older adults showed an almost 40% increase in instability compared to single-task. However, in the sway reference somatosensory condition, stability was the same in single- and dual-task performance, whereas pronounced (15%) costs emerged for cognition. These results show that during dual-tasking while standing on a stable surface, older adults have the flexibility to allow an increase in instability to accommodate cognitive task performance. However, when instability increases by means of compromising somatosensory information, levels of postural control are kept similar in single- and dual-task, by utilizing resources otherwise allocated to the cognitive task. This evidence emphasizes the flexible nature of resource allocation, developed over the life-span to compensate for age-related decline in sensorimotor and cognitive processing.

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Acknowledgments

The project was funded by an Onderzoeksfonds KU Leuven Grant (OT 05/25) to Ralf Th. Krampe. The authors thank Koen Van Bergen for help with the data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, K.U. Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, bus 3715, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Michail Doumas, Caroline Smolders & Ralf Th. Krampe

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  1. Michail Doumas
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  2. Caroline Smolders
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  3. Ralf Th. Krampe
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Correspondence to Michail Doumas.

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Doumas, M., Smolders, C. & Krampe, R.T. Task prioritization in aging: effects of sensory information on concurrent posture and memory performance. Exp Brain Res 187, 275–281 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1302-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1302-3

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