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Title: | Muscular and Prefrontal Cortex Activity during Dual-Task Performing in Young Adults | Authors: | Saraiva, Marina Castro, Maria António Vilas-Boas, João Paulo |
Keywords: | dual-task; EMG; fNIRS; muscle activity; prefrontal cortex; co-contraction index | Issue Date: | 31-Mar-2023 | Publisher: | MDPI | Project: | FCT grant number 2021.08571.BD | Serial title, monograph or event: | European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education | Volume: | 13 | Issue: | 4 | Abstract: | Postural control depends on attentional resources besides automatic processes. The dual-task paradigm is a possible approach to analyzing the interference and performance between motor and/or cognitive tasks. Various studies showed that, when individuals simultaneously perform two tasks, the postural stability can decline during a dual-task compared with a single-task due to the attentional resources required performing the tasks. However, little is known about the cortical and muscular activity pattern during dual-task performance. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the muscular and prefrontal activity under dual-task performance in healthy young adults. Thirty-four healthy young adults (mean age ± SD = 22.74 ± 3.74 years) were recruited to perform a postural task (standing posture) and a dual-task (maintaining standing posture while performing a cognitive task). Lower-limb muscle activity was bilaterally collected from five muscles using surface electromyography (sEMG), and the co-contraction index (CCI) was also calculated for selected muscle pairings. The oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin concentrations (prefrontal cortex activity) were recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Data were compared between single- and dual-task performance. Prefrontal activity increased (p < 0.05), and muscle activity decreased in most analyzed muscles (p < 0.05), from the single-task to cognitive dual-task performing. The co-contraction index patterns changed from single- to dual-task conditions in most selected muscle pairs (p < 0.05). We conclude that the cognitive task negatively interfered with motor performance once the muscle activity decreased and the prefrontal cortex activity increased under a dual-task, suggesting that young adults prioritized cognitive task performance, and they allocated more attentional resources to the cognitive task over the motor performance. Understanding the neuromotor changes can help adopt a better clinical practice to prevent injuries. However, future studies are recommended to assess and monitor muscular and cortical activity during the dual-task performance to provide additional information about the cortical and muscular activity patterns in postural control while performing a dual-task. | URI: | https://hdl.handle.net/10316/113621 | ISSN: | 2254-9625 | DOI: | 10.3390/ejihpe13040055 | Rights: | openAccess |
Appears in Collections: | I&D CEMMPRE - Artigos em Revistas Internacionais |
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Muscular-and-Prefrontal-Cortex-Activity-during-DualTask-Performing-in-Young-AdultsEuropean-Journal-of-Investigation-in-Health-Psychology-and-Education.pdf | 2.68 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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