Heightened Attention Demand of the Walking Cancellation Task and Its Relation to ADHD Tendency in Young Adults

Abstract

People with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are reportedly more prone to injury, especially nonfatal injuries such as sprains and strains of joints and adjacent muscles. However, the reasons underlying the increased incidence of injuries remain unclear. This preliminary study was conducted to elucidate attention mechanisms under circumstances that demand both visual search and walking, and those mechanisms’ relation to ADHD tendency in young adults. For this study, 30 young adults performed a walking cancellation task (involving visual search and walking) and a pointing cancellation task (involving visual search). Each task had two conditions manipulated for difficulty in terms of the target-to-distractor (TD) ratio. Results showed that (a) cancelling efficiency of the walking cancellation task was lower, (b) cancelling efficiency with a smaller TD ratio was remarkably lower in the walking cancellation task, and (c) ADHD tendency was correlated with cancelling efficiency only in the more difficult condition of the walking cancellation task. These results suggest that a threshold exists for attention demand, beyond which performance deteriorates extraordinarily when engaging in visual searches while walking.