@misc{BeurskensHaegerKliegletal.2016,
  author    = {Beurskens, Rainer and Haeger, Matthias and Kliegl, Reinhold and Roecker, Kai and Granacher, Urs},
  title     = {Postural Control in Dual-Task Situations},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-96638},
  pages     = {1 -- 15},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Postural control is important to cope with demands of everyday life. It has been shown that both attentional demand (i.e., cognitive processing) and fatigue affect postural control in young adults. However, their combined effect is still unresolved. Therefore, we investigated the effects of fatigue on single- (ST) and dual-task (DT) postural control. Twenty young subjects (age: 23.7 ± 2.7) performed an all-out incremental treadmill protocol. After each completed stage, one-legged-stance performance on a force platform under ST (i.e., one-legged-stance only) and DT conditions (i.e., one-legged-stance while subtracting serial 3s) was registered. On a second test day, subjects conducted the same balance tasks for the control condition (i.e., non-fatigued). Results showed that heart rate, lactate, and ventilation increased following fatigue (all p < 0.001; d = 4.2-21). Postural sway and sway velocity increased during DT compared to ST (all p < 0.001; d = 1.9-2.0) and fatigued compared to non-fatigued condition (all p < 0.001; d = 3.3-4.2). In addition, postural control deteriorated with each completed stage during the treadmill protocol (all p < 0.01; d = 1.9-3.3). The addition of an attention-demanding interference task did not further impede one-legged-stance performance. Although both additional attentional demand and physical fatigue affected postural control in healthy young adults, there was no evidence for an overadditive effect (i.e., fatigue-related performance decrements in postural control were similar under ST and DT conditions). Thus, attentional resources were sufficient to cope with the DT situations in the fatigue condition of this experiment.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{BeurskensSteinbergAntoniewiczetal.2016,
  author    = {Beurskens, Rainer and Steinberg, Fabian and Antoniewicz, Franziska and Wolff, Wanja and Granacher, Urs},
  title     = {Neural Correlates of Dual-Task Walking},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-90742},
  pages     = {1 -- 9},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Walking while concurrently performing cognitive and/or motor interference tasks is the norm rather than the exception during everyday life and there is evidence from behavioral studies that it negatively affects human locomotion. However, there is hardly any information available regarding the underlying neural correlates of single- and dual-task walking. We had 12 young adults (23.8 ± 2.8 years) walk while concurrently performing a cognitive interference (CI) or a motor interference (MI) task. Simultaneously, neural activation in frontal, central, and parietal brain areas was registered using a mobile EEG system. Results showed that the MI task but not the CI task affected walking performance in terms of significantly decreased gait velocity and stride length and significantly increased stride time and tempo-spatial variability. Average activity in alpha and beta frequencies was significantly modulated during both CI and MI walking conditions in frontal and central brain regions, indicating an increased cognitive load during dual-task walking. Our results suggest that impaired motor performance during dual-task walking is mirrored in neural activation patterns of the brain. This finding is in line with established cognitive theories arguing that dual-task situations overstrain cognitive capabilities resulting in motor performance decrements.},
  language  = {en}
}