Aging brains’ response to multitasking revealed in blood flow study

Published on December 20, 2022

Imagine you’re riding a unicycle and juggling at the same time. Sounds challenging, right? Well, that’s not too different from what researchers explored in a recent study on older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). They wanted to understand how the brain handles two tasks simultaneously – walking and counting. By using an advanced technique called functional diffuse correlation spectroscopy, the scientists measured changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the prefrontal cortex of 49 older adults with and without MCI. The results showed that participants with MCI had a higher increase in CBF when they switched from walking to counting compared to those with normal cognition. This suggests that their brains are working harder to handle the dual-task demands. Interestingly, both groups showed increased CBF during backward counting compared to normal walking, indicating a shared response to attentional demand. These findings provide valuable insights into the complex interplay between motor and cognitive functions in aging brains. To learn more about this fascinating study, check out the research article!

IntroductionIn a worldwide aging population with a high prevalence of motor and cognitive impairment, it is paramount to improve knowledge about underlying mechanisms of motor and cognitive function and their interplay in the aging processes.MethodsWe measured prefrontal cerebral blood flow (CBF) using functional diffuse correlation spectroscopy during motor and dual-task. We aimed to compare CBF changes among 49 older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI) during a dual-task paradigm (normal walk, 2- forward count walk, 3-backward count walk, obstacle negotiation, and heel tapping). Participants with MCI walked slower during the normal walk and obstacle negotiation compared to participants with normal cognition (NC), while gait speed during counting conditions was not different between the groups, therefore the dual-task cost was higher for participants with NC. We built a linear mixed effects model with CBF measures from the right and left prefrontal cortex.ResultsMCI (n = 34) showed a higher increase in CBF from the normal walk to the 2-forward count walk (estimate = 0.34, 95% CI [0.02, 0.66], p = 0.03) compared to participants with NC, related to a right- sided activation. Both groups showed a higher CBF during the 3-backward count walk compared to the normal walk, while only among MCI, CFB was higher during the 2-forward count walk.DiscussionOur findings suggest a differential prefrontal hemodynamic pattern in older adults with MCI compared to their NC counterparts during the dual-task performance, possibly as a response to increasing attentional demand.

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