Aging and Dual Task Performance

Falls and anxiety about falling profoundly affect the lives of many older adults. One potentially disrupting factor is dual tasking; carrying out two activities at the same time. Of particular concern in this subproject is the risk of injury to older adults when they must maintain posture in standing or walking while carrying out a second focal task. Is dual tasking related to (fear of) falling? What factors affect dual-tasking success? Can older adults be trained to dual-task, and thereby reduce their risk? Experimental investigations of postural stability, and thus of the effects of factors that threaten it, require sensitive measures of stability. To answer these important questions, the proposed project builds on CESPA's study of postural stability and research showing that dual tasking modulates the attractor dynamics of movement coordination. The primary aims of the research are to; 1) determine optimal practice strategies for improving dual task ability in older adults, 2) examine how suboptimal conditions that older adults encounter every day affect their ability to dual task, and 3) establish the relationship between dual task ability, cognitive status, fear of falling, fall risk, quality of life, and vision. This research holds promise for improving safety and quality of life for older adults.