New publication in PLOS One
Dr. Soyoung Lee published this study from her dissertation project.
We concurrently assessed pre-frontal cortex (PFC) activity and gait using wearable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and inertial sensing systems during single- and dual-task walking in people with painful knee osteoarthritis (n=48).
We identified three key findings
1. PFC activation was similar between single- and dual-task walking
2. Gait was worse during dual- vs. single-task walking but cognitive performance was similar between dual-task walking and a cognitive task
3. Greater PFC activation during dual-task walking was related to better gait performance.
Our findings suggest that people with knee OA may not have sufficient brain reserve to increase prefrontal cortex function and maintain gait performance when challenged with dual-task conditions during walking. This may increase their risk of falls while walking in everyday life and interventions to improve dual-task walking performance may be considered in future studies.
Read open-access here:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0331070