Scientists Discover the Healthy Brain's Capacity to Multitask While Walking

Researchers from the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester have learned that healthy brains can multitask while walking without affecting how you perform either activity.

Brain Flexibility and Multitasking Capacity

David Richardson, first author of the recent study and a fifth-year MD/Ph.D. student at the University's Pathology & Cell Biology Disease Program, explains that the team's research shows that the brain is flexible and can handle additional burdens. He adds that the recent findings show that the walking patterns of the participants improved when performing cognitive tasks at the same time. It suggests that the participants were more stable while walking and performing additional tasks than when they solely focused on walking alone.

The researchers utilized Mobile Brain/Body Imaging systems (MoBI) at the Frederick J. and Marion A. Schindler Cognitive Neurophysiology Lab at the Del Monte Institute. The platform allows researchers to combine brain monitoring, motion capture technology, and virtual reality. While the participants were asked to walk on a treadmill or manipulate objects placed on a table, high-speed cameras recorded the position markers with the utmost precision, simultaneously measuring the participant's brain activity.

Scientists use MoBI to record the participant's brain activity as switch tasks. Their brain activity was recorded simultaneously while they performed the same tasks while sitting down. Next, changes in the brain were measured as the participants executed their cued tasks showing how during more difficult tasks, the participant's neurophysiological differences were greater between sitting and walking. The study highlights the healthy brain's flexibility and how it prepares and executes tasks based on varying difficulty levels, reports EurekAlert.

Edward Freedman, Ph.D., the lead author of the study, explains that MoBI allowed the team to better understand the functioning of the brain in everyday life. He adds that the recent findings allow scientists to understand how young, healthy brains switch tasks and give researchers better insights into what's occurring in the brain with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.

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Understanding Brain Health

Brain Health is an emerging and growing concept encompassing neural development, functioning, plasticity, and recovery across a person's life course, according to WHO. Individuals with a healthy brain can realize their abilities and optimize cognitive, psychological, emotional, and behavioral functions to cope with various life situations.

Numerous interconnected biological and social determinants play a key role in the brain's development and health from pre-conception throughout life. These so-called determinants influence a person's brain development, how it adapts and responds to both stress and adversity, and give way to strategies from promotion and prevention across the course of their life.

The study was published in the journal NeuroImage, titled "Neural markers of proactive and reactive cognitive control are altered during walking: A Mobile Brain-Body Imaging (MoBI) study."