Associations between declines in uneven terrain walking speed and visuospatial working memory in older adults.
Introduction: Mobility and cognitive functions often decline concurrently in older adults, and may be particularly detrimental to walking in complex environments such as uneven terrain. Walking on uneven terrain particularly relies on visuospatial working memory to continuously adjust gait patterns;...
| Publicado en: | Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience pp. 1 - 16 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
| Formato: | pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=191603062&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 191603062 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 16634365 BG2U jtl: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience issn: 16634365 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2026 pid: 40038 pub: Frontiers Media S.A. artinfo: ui: 191603062 191603062 191603062 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1644741 191603062 ppf: 1 ppct: 15 formats: tig: atl: Associations between declines in uneven terrain walking speed and visuospatial working memory in older adults. aug: au: Hwang, Jungyun Liu, Chang Winesett, Steven P. Fettow, Tyler Shah, Valay A. Chatterjee, Sudeshna A. Manini, Todd M. Hass, Chris J. Seidler, Rachael D. Ferris, Daniel P. Roy, Arkaprava Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A. Clark, David J. affil: Department of Neurology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States sug: subj: Walking Speed Evaluation Memory, Short Term Evaluation Spatial Behavior Evaluation Task Performance and Analysis In Adulthood Task Performance and Analysis In Old Age Physical Performance Evaluation Geriatric Functional Assessment Age Factors Prefrontal Cortex Physiology Human Funding Source Adult Aged Exploratory Research Clinical Assessment Tools Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared Cognition Evaluation Aging Experimental Studies Multivariate Analysis Male Female One-Way Analysis of Variance Chi Square Test Post Hoc Analysis Fisher's Exact Test Data Analysis Software Adult: 19-44 years Aged: 65+ years Male Female ab: Introduction: Mobility and cognitive functions often decline concurrently in older adults, and may be particularly detrimental to walking in complex environments such as uneven terrain. Walking on uneven terrain particularly relies on visuospatial working memory to continuously adjust gait patterns; however, this relationship remains understudied. The objectives of this study are to examine group differences in uneven terrain walking speed and visuospatial n-back task performance across varying task demands among younger adults, and among older adults with high and low physical function and to assess whether uneven terrain-induced reductions in walking speed are associated with declines in n-back performance, particularly among low-functioning older adults. As an exploratory aim, we also examined age-related differences in brain activity during n-back performance to provide additional context for interpreting neural responses across tasks. Methods: The analysis included 24 younger adults (aged 22.8 ± 3.3) and 44 older adults (aged 74.0 ± 5.6). Using the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), older adults were categorized into high physical function (n = 29) and low physical function (n = 15), with scores below 10 indicating a lower level of physical function. Uneven terrain walking speed was measured as participants traversed four novel custom-made overground surfaces: flat, low, medium, and high terrain unevenness. Visuospatial walking memory was assessed on a spatial n-back task that included four n-back levels, ranging from 0-back to 3-back. Prefrontal cortical activity was measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) while participants performed the n-back task. Results: Compared to younger adults, older adults exhibited poorer working memory performance and slower uneven terrain walking speeds, with both effects being particularly pronounced in low functioning older adults. Slower walking speeds as terrain became more uneven were associated with poorer n-back performance as n-back level increased, with a larger effect size observed in the low physical functioning older adults. fNIRS results revealed comparable levels of prefrontal cortical activity between younger and older groups during the n-back tasks. Prefrontal cortical activity did not increase with higher task demands (i.e., increasing n-back levels) in any of the groups. Conclusion: These findings support a relationship between declines in uneven terrain mobility and n-back cognitive function in older adults; however, this relationship was not observed in younger adults. Further research is needed to understand the shared neural mechanisms underlying age-related declines in mobility and cognitive function. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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