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Optic flow improves step width and length in older adults while performing dual task

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Abstract

Background

Dual-task paradigms are used to investigate gait and cognitive declines in older adults (OA). Optic-flow is a virtual reality environment where the scene flows past the subject while walking on a treadmill, mimicking real-life locomotion.

Aims

To investigate cost of environment (no optic-flow v. optic-flow) while completing single- and dual-task walking and dual-task costs (DTC; single- v. dual-task) in optic-flow and no optic-flow environments.

Methods

Twenty OA and seven younger adults (YA) walked on a self-paced treadmill in 3-min segments per task and both environments. Five task conditions included: no task, semantic fluency (category), phonemic fluency (letters), word reading, and serial-subtraction.

Results

OAs had a benefit of optic-flow compared to no optic-flow for step width (p = 0.015) and step length (p = 0.045) during letters compared to the YA. During letters, OA experienced improvement in step width DTC; whereas YA had a decrement in step width DTC from no optic-flow to optic-flow (p = 0.038). During serial-subtraction, OA had less step width DTC when compared to YA in both environments (p = 0.02).

Discussion

During letters, step width and step length improved in OA while walking in optic-flow. Also, step width DTC differed between the two groups. Sensory information from optic-flow appears to benefit OA. Letters relies more on verbal ability and word knowledge, which are preserved in aging. However, YA use a complex speech style during dual tasking, searching for complex words and an increased speed of speech.

Conclusions

OA can benefit from optic-flow by improving spatial gait parameters, specifically, step width, during dual-task walking.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Angie Helseth for her assistance in data collection and processing.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (P20 GM109090 to SAM, JBB, JMY, and R01 HD090333 to SAM) and the University of Nebraska at Omaha Graduate Research and Creative Activity Fund (TL).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomechanics, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 6160 University Drive, Omaha, NE, 68182-0860, USA

    Taylor Leeder, Farahnaz Fallahtafti, Molly Schieber, Sara A. Myers & Jennifer M. Yentes

  2. Department of Gerontology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 6001 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE, 68182-0202, USA

    Julie Blaskewicz Boron

Authors
  1. Taylor Leeder
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  2. Farahnaz Fallahtafti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer M. Yentes.

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Conflict of interest

All authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Supplementary material 1 (PDF 306 KB)

Appendix A

Appendix A

Version A

Phonemic (Letter) Fluency: F, L, S.

Semantic (Category) Fluency: Animals, Parts of the Body, Kitchen Utensils.

Serial Subtractions: 233, 650, 502.

Word reading: indices, hose, lamb, acquisitiveness, equivocal, fountain, corps, pout, subtle, détente, casserole, debt, browbeat, asked, statistics, epitome, shield, chord, flower, subpoena, banal, chrysanthemum, rarefy, diverse, irrelevant, generate, bell, eccentricities, bouquet, thyme.

Version B

Phonemic (Letter) Fluency: W, G, T.

Semantic (Category) Fluency: Sports, Furniture, Supermarket Items.

Serial Subtractions: 805, 297, 483.

Word Reading: asphyxiation, doll, paradigm, simile, reify, gauge, recipe, procreate, fifth, magnanimity, gouge, naïve, idyll, machine, hospital, sieve, youth, colony, cloud, façade, indict, confide, amicable, synthesis, deny, epic, fly, labile, crayon, clasped.

Version C

Phonemic (Letter) Fluency: M, B, R.

Semantic (Category) Fluency: Professions, Fruits & Vegetables, Things you Wear.

Serial Subtractions: 738, 369, 922.

Word Reading: ache, aisle, ballad, bibliography, caveat, cellist, colonel, courteous, curtain, debris, depot, efficacy, evolve, gigantic, gist, heir, hiatus, joker, ladder, lily, lingerie, nausea, placebo, pony, psalm, pugnacious, stranger, superfluous, yesterday, zealot.

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Leeder, T., Fallahtafti, F., Schieber, M. et al. Optic flow improves step width and length in older adults while performing dual task. Aging Clin Exp Res 31, 1077–1086 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-018-1059-x

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