Summary: New findings indicate that walking patterns become more stable when healthy adults perform a cognitive task simultaneously, suggesting the brain can effectively manage dual demands without compromising gait or thinking.
Source: University of Rochester
Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester, challenged the long-held notion that people cannot effectively multitask while walking. Their study demonstrates that healthy young adults can perform cognitive tasks during walking without a decline in either task; in some measures, walking performance even improved while multitasking.
“These results highlight the flexibility of the healthy brain,” said David Richardson, an MD/PhD student and the study’s first author. “We observed that participants’ walking patterns improved when they simultaneously handled a cognitive task, implying they were more stable while walking and performing the task than when concentrating only on walking.”
To investigate how the brain supports simultaneous motor and cognitive demands, the team used a Mobile Brain/Body Imaging system (MoBI) in the Del Monte Institute’s Frederick J. and Marion A. Schindler Cognitive Neurophysiology Lab. The MoBI platform integrates virtual reality, high-density brain monitoring, and precise motion capture. While participants walked on a treadmill or manipulated objects on a table, 16 high-speed cameras tracked body markers with millimeter precision and recorded brain activity at the same time.
During the experiments, participants alternated between walking on a treadmill and sitting while being cued to switch tasks. The researchers recorded electroencephalography (EEG) signals along with motion data to compare brain responses and gait across conditions. Results showed distinctive neurophysiological changes when participants engaged in more demanding cognitive tasks while walking. As task difficulty increased, differences between the brain’s responses during walking versus sitting became larger, revealing how a healthy brain adapts proactively and reactively to changing demands.
“MoBI allows us to study brain function during natural behaviors, not just in static laboratory setups,” said Edward Freedman, Ph.D., the study’s lead author. “Observing how the young, healthy brain prepares for and executes tasks while walking gives us important benchmarks for comparison with aging and neurodegenerative conditions.”
Richardson added, “Understanding how a healthy brain successfully ‘walks and talks’ is a critical first step. The next phase is to apply these methods to a wider range of participants, including older adults and people with neurodegenerative diseases, to determine how these adaptive mechanisms change with age and disease.”
Additional contributors to the research include John Foxe, Ph.D., Kevin Mazurek, Ph.D., and Nicholas Abraham, all affiliated with the University of Rochester. Funding was provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience Pilot Program.
About this neuroscience research news
Author: Kelsie Smith Hayduk
Source: University of Rochester
Contact: Kelsie Smith Hayduk – University of Rochester
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access. “Neural markers of proactive and reactive cognitive control are altered during walking: A Mobile Brain-Body Imaging (MoBI) study” by David Richardson et al., NeuroImage. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118853
Abstract
Neural markers of proactive and reactive cognitive control are altered during walking: A Mobile Brain-Body Imaging (MoBI) study
Everyday tasks require the brain to process sensory signals and generate motor commands simultaneously. Even routine motor behaviors such as walking can interact with ongoing mental tasks, a phenomenon known as cognitive-motor interference (CMI). This interference may stem from disruptions in proactive control—how the brain plans and prepares for action—or from disruptions in reactive control—how the brain responds during task execution.
In healthy young adults, behavioral signs of walking-induced interference are often minimal because neural circuits can flexibly compensate for added demands. To probe these compensatory mechanisms, the study systematically increased cognitive-motor load during cued task-switching and measured underlying neurophysiological changes in proactive and reactive control.
Twenty-two healthy young adults participated while researchers recorded 64-channel EEG using the MoBI approach as participants alternated between sitting and walking during task-switching. Walking produced measurable changes in neural indices tied to both proactive and reactive control: cue-evoked late frontal slow waves were amplified during walking, while target-evoked fronto-central N2 and parietal P3 amplitudes were reduced. These adjustments in brain activity scaled with task difficulty, suggesting objective neural markers that reflect increasing cognitive load.
Such markers may help identify individuals who appear healthy but are compensating for early degenerative changes. While compensation can mask impairment for a time, continued degeneration could eventually exceed compensatory capacity, leading to rapid declines in both cognitive performance and the control of coordinated actions.