Figure - available via license: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
Content may be subject to copyright.
Main effect of age. The left part of the Figure shows the activated brain areas (p < 0.001; k > 30 voxels). The right part of the figure denotes the signal intensities (beta weights) mean and standard deviation.
Source publication
In daily life elderly adults exhibit deficits when dual-tasking is involved. So far these deficits have been verified on a behavioral level in dual-tasking. Yet, the neuronal architecture of these deficits in aging still remains to be explored especially when late-middle aged individuals around 60 years of age are concerned. Neuroimaging studies in...
Similar publications
Human information processing suffers from severe limitations in parallel processing. In particular, when required to respond to two stimuli in rapid succession, processing bottlenecks may appear at central and peripheral stages of task processing. Importantly, it has been suggested that executive functions are needed to resolve the interference ari...
Computer games have been proposed as effective tools for cognitive enhancement. Especially first-person shooter (FPS) games have been found to yield a range of positive effects, and these positive effects also apply to the domain of executive functioning. Only a particular area of executive functioning has been shown to resist training via FPS game...
Multitasking, defined as performing more than one task at a time, typically yields performance decrements, for instance, in processing speed and accuracy. These performance costs are often distributed asymmetrically among the involved tasks. Under suitable conditions, this can be interpreted as a marker for prioritization of one task – the one that...
Limitations in our ability to produce two responses at the same time – that is, dual-task interference – are typically measured by comparing performance when two stimuli are presented and two responses are made in close temporal proximity to when a single stimulus is presented and a single response is made. While straightforward, this approach leav...
Citations
... This SCP pattern implies that attentional mechanisms supporting the maintenance of working memory and inhibition networks for dual-task preparation discussed above are not efficiently employed by older individuals. A reduced involvement of such mechanisms can be explained with a deficient engagement of frontal control networks in older adults in dual tasks (Chmielewski et al., 2014), and an aging-related decrease of cognitive reserve modulated by right-hemisphere processes (Robertson, 2014). According to the present results, older adults manifested a preponderant pre-activation of visual cortical areas, pointing to a primary role of sensory analysis in dualtask preparation. ...
Background: Multi-tasking is usually impaired in older people. In multi-tasking, a fixed order of sub-tasks can improve performance by promoting a time-structured preparation of sub-tasks. How proactive control prioritizes the pre-activation or inhibition of complex tasks in older people has received no sufficient clarification so far.
Objective: To explore the effects of aging on neural proactive control mechanisms in a dual task.
Methodology: To address this question, the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm was used. Two 2-alternative-forced-choice reaction tasks with a predefined order (T1 and T2) signaled by a cue had to be executed simultaneously or consecutively by young (mean age 25.1 years, n = 36) and old subjects (mean age 70.4 years, n = 118). Performance indices of dual-task preparation were used to assess the focused preparation of T1 and T2. To compare preparatory mechanisms at the neurophysiologic level, multi-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded and negative slow cortical potentials (SCPs) were analyzed as objective markers of the amount and localization of cortical pre-activation before sub-task presentation.
Results: Dual-task performance was significantly slower in old adults. T1 performance was facilitated in both age groups, but T2 processing in old adults was not optimized by the temporal structure as efficiently as in young adults. Also, only young adults manifested a stable pattern of focused of negative slow-wave activity increase at medial frontal and right-hemisphere posterior regions, which was associated with a coordinated preparatory T1 pre-activation and T2 deferment, while old adults manifested a broad topographic distribution of negative SCPs associated with a pre-activation of sensory and motor processes.
Conclusions: These observations demonstrate that the proactive preparation for dual tasking is altered with aging. It is suggested that in young adults, attention-based pre-activation of working memory and inhibitory networks in the right hemisphere synchronizes the simultaneous preparation of the two sub-tasks, whereas in old adults, sensory and motor networks appear to be non-specifically pre-activated for subsequent deferred mode of processing.
... 1b) [21,23,24]. Die beteiligten Prozesse basieren auf einem funktionalen Netzwerk frontaler, fronto-zentraler und parietaler Regionen [25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34]. Für ein erfolgreiches Zusammenspiel dieser Regionen ist die Reizweiterleitung und somit die Integrität der weißen Substanz von elementarer Bedeutung, die jedoch bei MS pathogenen Veränderungen unterworfen ist, weshalb MS auch als ein Diskonnektionssyndrom beschrieben wird [35]. ...
... 1b) [21,23,24]. Die beteiligten Prozesse basieren auf einem funktionalen Netzwerk frontaler, fronto-zentraler und parietaler Regionen [25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34]. Für ein erfolgreiches Zusammenspiel dieser Regionen ist die Reizweiterleitung und somit die Integrität der weißen Substanz von elementarer Bedeutung, die jedoch bei MS pathogenen Veränderungen unterworfen ist, weshalb MS auch als ein Diskonnektionssyndrom beschrieben wird [35]. ...
Die Schädigung der Myelinscheiden und der Axone bei der Multiplen Sklerose führt zu heterogenen neurologischen Defiziten. Die Krankheit kann durch eine individuell optimierte Therapie gebremst werden, muss dazu aber zunächst messbar gemacht werden. Zur Krankheitserfassung im klinischen Alltag gibt es verschiedene Ansätze, die in einer Serie von 14 Artikeln vorgestellt werden.
... This disability may adversely impact their daily life, mental health and productivity (Foss-Feig et al., 2017). With the development of neuroscience and anatomy, numerous studies showed the inhibition process involved in some brain areas, such as the corpus callosum (Alexander et al.;Giuliano et al., 2018;Just, Cherkassky, Keller, Kana, & Minshew, 2006), thalamus (Daly et al., 2014;Haznedar et al., 2006), anterior cingulate cortex (Chmielewski, Yildiz, & Beste, 2014), prefrontal cortex (T. Xiao et al., 2012), temporal gyrus (Sheikhani, Behnam, Mohammadi, Noroozian, & Mohammadi, 2012), and parietal gyrus (Vara et al., 2014). ...
Background
Few studies explored response inhibition in autistic-like traits people, using task fMRI. In this study, we examine the functional connectivity of the brain using a stop-signal task based on fMRI among young adults with autistic-like traits and investigated their ability to achieve inhibition control.Methods29 of Chinese individuals measured with AQ. Then applied stop signal task to explore the difference in brain functional connectivity in individuals with autistic-like traits.ResultsThe results showed autistic-like traits people the longer the SSRT, the worse the inhibition ability. And we used networks obtained from groupICA analysis at the functional connectivity analysis level, the SN had a negative connection with left SMG; the DAN had a negative connection with left LG; the FPN had a positive connection with left PCG; the LN had a positive connection with vermis 4 5 and negative connection with left ITG. Furthermore, the SMG, LG, PCG, and temporal gyrus were also obtained in ROI-to-ROI analysis.LimitationsOur sample size smaller, still need to multicenter, large sample confirmed this conclusion. We want to use more task paradigms to explore inhibition control in autistic-like traits people.ConclusionsWe found that autistic-like traits people had atypical functional connectivity within brain networks in the SN, DAN, FPN, and LN, and had atypical brain areas centered on the SMG, LG, PCG, and temporal gyrus. And also highlight the importance of considering executive control function of whole-brain functional connections to better characterize brain connectivity in young adults with autistic-like traits.
... MS can be understood as a dysfunction of the human connectome [9] due to lesions in white matter structures [10][11][12]. Since large-scale networks have been shown to be important in dual-tasking [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], it seems reasonable that the assessment of dualtasking abilities is essential in the neuropsychological assessment of MS. Yet, in the field of MSresearch, dual-tasking has mostly been examined by assessing the performance of simple cognitive tasks while walking [24][25][26][27][28][29] or balancing [30,31]. ...
The assessment of neuropsychological functions and especially dual-tasking abilities is considered to be increasingly relevant in the assessment of neurological disease, and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in particular. However, the assessment of dual-tasking abilities is hindered by specific software requirements and extensive testing times. We designed a novel e-health (progressive web application-based) device for the assessment of dual-tasking abilities usable in "bedside" and outpatient clinic settings and examined its reliability in a sample of N = 184 MS patients in an outpatient setting. Moreover, we examined the relevance of dual-tasking assessment using this device with respect to clinically relevant parameters in MS. We show that a meaningful assessment of dual-tasking is possible within 6 min and that the behavioral readouts overall show good reliability depending on dual-tasking difficulty. We show that dual-tasking readouts were correlated with clinically relevant parameters (e.g., EDSS, disease duration, processing speed) and were not affected by fatigue levels. We consider the tested dual-tasking assessment device suitable for routine clinical neuropsychological assessments of dual-tasking abilities. Future studies may further evaluate this test regarding its suitability in the long-term follow up assessments and to assess dual-tasking abilities in other neurological and psychiatric disorders.
... When these responses are demanded in close succession, response selection capacities become overstrained and response selection processes are slowed down (13,16,17). Several lines of evidence suggest that these capacities depend on brain structures in the frontal, fronto-central, and parietal regions and are thus organized as long-distance functional neuroanatomical networks (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). This is of particular relevance for MS because MS can be seen as a white matter disconnection syndrome (28). ...
Cognitive impairment is prevalent and disabling in multiple sclerosis (MS) and is severely impacting quality of life (QoL). Aside its routine assessment in clinical care, it should more often be implemented as endpoint/outcome measure in clinical trials. However, a fundamental aspect—often neglected in clinical practice and clinical trials—is the assessment of multi-tasking and dual-tasking abilities. In this perspective article, we outline why, given the nature of MS, particularly the assessment of “cognitive–cognitive dual-tasking” is relevant in MS. We delineate how knowledge from basic cognitive science can inform the assessment of this important cognitive impairment in MS. Finally, we outline how the assessment of “cognitive–cognitive dual-tasking” can be implemented in computer-based screening tools (e-health devices) that can be used not only in clinical diagnostics but also in clinical trials.
... Due to the high prevalence of cognitive dysfunctions of about 40-70% in multiple sclerosis (MS), the clinical assessment of cognitive dysfunctions is central to the characterization of this disease (Chiaravalloti and DeLuca, 2008;Rocca et al., 2015). Processing speed, memory and attention are the most frequently and earliest affected cognitive domains in MS (e.g., Litvan et al., 1988;Beatty et al., 1989;Demaree et al., 1999;Denney and Lynch, 2009;Amato et al., 2010;Denney et al., 2011;Langdon, 2011). ...
... It has been shown that dual-tasking conditions, where different cognitive processes related to the selection of actions have to be monitored in parallel, are very sensitive to even slight alterations in the functioning of neuronal networks (Beste et al., 2013a). The efficient usage of widely distributed functional networks including frontal, subcortical, parietal, and primary sensory regions are essential for performance in dual-tasking (Dux et al., 2006;Marois et al., 2006;Szameitat et al., 2006;Stelzel et al., 2008;Chmielewski et al., 2014;Gohil et al., 2015Gohil et al., , 2017Stock et al., 2017). Since MS may be described as a disease affecting the human "connectome" (Griffa et al., 2013) and functional connectivity between brain areas is critically affected by microstructural lesions especially in white matter structures (Bonzano et al., 2009(Bonzano et al., , 2011Droby et al., 2016), dual-tasking processes may be of particular relevance and are very sensitive to detect early and subtle cognitive (executive) dysfunctions in MS. ...
... However, and most important, the covariate analysis showed that age had no impact on the observed effects in this study. In comparison to other studies of aging on dual tasking (e.g., Li et al., 2001;Verhaeghen et al., 2003;Verhaeghen, 2011;Beurskens and Bock, 2012;Chmielewski et al., 2014;Bier et al., 2017), the age differences as observed here were rather small. Other factors differing between controls and MS patients (e.g., BDI and MFIS) did also not bias the results of this study, as shown by the covariate analysis controlling for these factors. ...
The monitoring of cognitive functions is central to the assessment and consecutive management of multiple sclerosis (MS). Though, especially cognitive processes that are central to everyday behavior like dual-tasking are often neglected. We examined dual-task performance using a psychological-refractory period (PRP) task in N = 21 patients and healthy controls and conducted standard neuropsychological tests. In dual-tasking, MS patients committed more erroneous responses when dual-tasking was difficult. In easier conditions, performance of MS patients did not differ to controls. Interestingly, the response times were generally not affected by the difficulty of the dual task, showing that the deficits observed do not reflect simple motor deficits or deficits in information processing speed but point out deficits in executive control functions and response selection in particular. Effect sizes were considerably large with d∼0.80 in mild affected patients and the achieved power was above 99%. There are cognitive control and dual tasking deficits in MS that are not attributable to simple motor speed deficits. Scaling of the difficulty of dual-tasking makes the test applied suitable for a wide variety of MS-patients and may complement neuropsychological assessments in clinical care and research setting.
... Importantly, it has been suggested that age-related deficits in dual-task performance (Lindenberger et al., 2000;Hartley, 2001;Verhaeghen and Cerella, 2002;Dubost et al., 2006;Göthe et al., 2007;Granacher et al., 2011) and corresponding changes in neural activation (Hartley et al., 2011;Chmielewski et al., 2014) may result from an underlying WM dysfunction (Awh et al., 2006;Gazzaley and Nobre, 2012). ...
Working memory (WM) performance declines with age. However, several studies have shown that WM training may lead to performance increases not only in the trained task, but also in untrained cognitive transfer tasks. It has been suggested that transfer effects occur if training task and transfer task share specific processing components that are supposedly processed in the same brain areas. In the current study, we investigated whether single-task WM training and training-related alterations in neural activity might support performance in a dual-task setting, thus assessing transfer effects to higher-order control processes in the context of dual-task coordination. A sample of older adults (age 60–72) was assigned to either a training or control group. The training group participated in 12 sessions of an adaptive n-back training. At pre and post-measurement, a multimodal dual-task was performed in all participants to assess transfer effects. This task consisted of two simultaneous delayed match to sample WM tasks using two different stimulus modalities (visual and auditory) that were performed either in isolation (single-task) or in conjunction (dual-task). A subgroup also participated in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during the performance of the n-back task before and after training. While no transfer to single-task performance was found, dual-task costs in both the visual modality (p < 0.05) and the auditory modality (p < 0.05) decreased at post-measurement in the training but not in the control group. In the fMRI subgroup of the training participants, neural activity changes in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during one-back predicted post-training auditory dual-task costs, while neural activity changes in right DLPFC during three-back predicted visual dual-task costs. Results might indicate an improvement in central executive processing that could facilitate both WM and dual-task coordination.
... Focusing on age-related differences, the following section gives an overview about previous neuro-imaging findings. Here, Chmielewski et al. (2014) measured brain activity in 14 healthy late middle-aged adults (mean age 60.51±3.34) and 14 young participants (mean age 24.37±2.89), ...
It is well known that dual-tasking is adversely affected by physiological degenerative processes. Furthermore, the completion of a secondary task while walking is frequently discussed as a key contributor for falls in the elderly. Age-related differences in both activated neural structures and human behavior are indicated in numerous previous studies. Besides a general overview of dual-tasking and aging, this article reviews studies aiming at improving gait or postural control in older adults using dual- or multi-task interventions. Approximately, 130 parameters out of 17 illustrated studies presented significant changes after dual-task-specific interventions regarding gait, postural control/balance, and falls. On the one hand, the article at hand shows highly consistent results in all of the dual-task intervention studies analyzed, indicating significant improvements related to postural control, gait, falls, or the performance of a secondary task. On the other hand, the results represent a heterogeneous structure and a gap between theoretical aspects and practical use. To optimize the use of dual-task, a systematization of underlying tasks is inevitable and should be focused on in further research.
... Yet, the opposite is also possible when the irrelevant stimulus does not match the meaning and cognitive processes triggered by the relevant stimulus. In conditions, where the concurrent stimuli are incompatible (i.e., signal for the opposite process), a conflict between the different streams of information is likely to emerge, thus leading to a decline in performance (Eriksen and Eriksen 1974;Botvinick et al. 2001;Chmielewski et al. 2014). For response inhibition processes, this has yet not been systematically tested. ...
Inhibiting responses is a challenge, where the outcome (partly) depends on the situational context. In everyday situations, response inhibition performance might be altered when irrelevant input is presented simultaneously with the information relevant for response inhibition. More specifically, irrelevant concurrent information may either brace or interfere with response-relevant information, depending on whether these inputs are redundant or conflicting. Aim of this study is to investigate neurophysiological mechanisms and the network underlying such modulations using EEG-beamforming as method. The results show that in comparison to a baseline condition without concurrent information, response inhibition performance can be aggravated or facilitated by manipulating the extent of conflict via concurrent input. This depends on, whether the requirement for cognitive control is high, as in conflicting trials, or whether it is low, as in redundant trials. In line with this, the total theta frequency power decreases in a right hemispheric orbitofrontal response inhibition network including the SFG, MFG and SMA, when concurrent redundant information facilitates response inhibition processes. Vice versa, theta activity in a left-hemispheric response inhibition network (i.e. SFG, MFG and IFG) increases, when conflicting concurrent information compromises response inhibition processes. We conclude that concurrent information bi-directionally shifts response inhibition performance and modulates the network architecture underlying theta oscillations which are signaling different levels of the need for cognitive control.
