Abstract
[Purpose] To investigate the effects of cognitive task difficulty and task prioritization on dual task (DT) strategy in healthy young adults. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty-one healthy young adults. Subjects performed the Timed Up & Go test (TUG) and continuous subtraction task from arbitrary numbers as single tasks (ST), and then performed them simultaneously as a dual task. DT performance was evaluated under four conditions: two levels of difficulty, subtracting 3 and 7, in conjunction with two prioritizing tasks, paying equal attention to both the walking and subtraction tasks (no priority: NP), and paying attention mainly to the subtraction task (cognitive priority: CP). [Results] TUG walking time increased significantly in the DT compared to the ST, and increased significantly more with CP than with NP. [Conclusion] TUG walking time is more susceptible to task prioritization than cognitive task difficulty in healthy young adults.
