Neuroscience
Older people who walk more slowly also perform less well on tests of mental performance - an association researchers say could prove useful for diagnosis and therapeutic interventions.
Having excluded participants with major neurological impairment or obvious cognitive difficulties, Kevin Duff and colleagues timed 675 older adults (average age 73.2 years) walking 25 feet in one direction and then back again. The participants also completed the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), which tests a range of abilities including language, memory and attention.
The participants were divided into three groups based on their walking speed (50 feet in less than 14 seconds; between 14 to 17 seconds; more than 17 seconds) and it turned out they differed in their cognitive performance, with the slowest walkers performing least well cognitively.
Although it is not clear whether walking speed impacts cognition, if cognition affects walking speed, or indeed if some other factor is responsible for both slow locomotion and thinking, the researchers said their observation was nonetheless useful. "In less than 30 seconds, clinicians have the opportunity to indirectly assess cognition," they said, adding that that their finding "might also guide interventions, as training in physically frail elders can improve walking speed and quality of life, and perhaps cognition."
_________________________________
Duff, K., Mold, J.W. & Roberts, M.M. (2008). Walking speed and global cognition: Results from the OKLAHOMA Study. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 15, 31-39.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Link to earlier related Digest item.
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Neuroscience
Among the elderly, slower walkers have slower brains
Older people who walk more slowly also perform less well on tests of mental performance - an association researchers say could prove useful for diagnosis and therapeutic interventions.Having excluded participants with major neurological impairment or obvious cognitive difficulties, Kevin Duff and colleagues timed 675 older adults (average age 73.2 years) walking 25 feet in one direction and then back again. The participants also completed the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), which tests a range of abilities including language, memory and attention.
The participants were divided into three groups based on their walking speed (50 feet in less than 14 seconds; between 14 to 17 seconds; more than 17 seconds) and it turned out they differed in their cognitive performance, with the slowest walkers performing least well cognitively.
Although it is not clear whether walking speed impacts cognition, if cognition affects walking speed, or indeed if some other factor is responsible for both slow locomotion and thinking, the researchers said their observation was nonetheless useful. "In less than 30 seconds, clinicians have the opportunity to indirectly assess cognition," they said, adding that that their finding "might also guide interventions, as training in physically frail elders can improve walking speed and quality of life, and perhaps cognition."
_________________________________
Duff, K., Mold, J.W. & Roberts, M.M. (2008). Walking speed and global cognition: Results from the OKLAHOMA Study. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 15, 31-39.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Link to earlier related Digest item.
- Why You Should Go For A Brisk Walk Before Revising
The exam season may be over, but here's a simple piece of advice for next semester. Go for a brisk walk before studying and your memory of the material is likely to benefit. Carlos Salas and his colleagues had dozens of students study 30 nouns, each...
- Memory Performance Boosted While Walking
Psychologists usually think of attention as a limited resource. The more of it you use on one task, they say, the less you have left over for others. Supporting this, countless studies have shown that performance deteriorates under dual-task versus single-task...
- Neuropsychology Abstract Of The Day: A Curious Dual-task Study
Decrease in gait variability while counting backward: a marker of "magnet effect"? Journal of Neural Transmission. 2010 Oct; 117(10): 1171-1176 Beauchet O, Allali G, Poujol L, Barthelemy JC, Roche F, Annweiler C Abstract Counting backward (CB) and walking...
- Abstract Of The Day: Cognitive Demands On Functional Decisions
Alexander NB, Ashton-Miller JA, Giordani B, Guire K, & Schultz AB. Age differences in timed accurate stepping with increasing cognitive and visual demand: A walking trail making test. Jounal of Gerontology: A Biological Sciences and Med Sciences. 2005...
- Abstract Of The Day: Walking And Cognitive Function
This week's issue of JAMA is getting a good deal of media attention for several articles that assess dietary intake and exercise habits and their impact on cognitive functioning and dementia in older indviduals. Following is the abstract one of...