Standing Postural Sway Controlled by Concurrent Dual Attention-Demanding Task with Numerical Subtraction

Abstract

Standing postural sway was analyzed in healthy subjects who maintained a stable standing posture (single attention-demanding task), and who simultaneously performed both the stable standing posture and a numerical subtraction task presented visually and/or aurally (concurrent dual attention-demanding task), in order to clarify the nature of cognitive influence on standing postural stability. The standing postural sway while performing the concurrent dual attention-demanding task significantly deteriorated compared to that in the single attention-demanding task, thus confirming that standing postural stability is effectively controlled by carrying out a concurrent dual attention-demanding task. These findings are discussed in relation to the resource-limited and data-limited processes developed in researches concerning selective attention.