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Neurophysiological and gait outcomes during a dual-task gait assessment in concussed adolescents
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Neurophysiological and gait outcomes during a dual-task gait assessment in concussed adolescents

Divya Jain, Valentina Graci, Megan E. Beam, Hasan Ayaz, Laura A. Prosser, Christina L. Master, Catherine C. McDonald and Kristy B. Arbogast
Clinical biomechanics (Bristol), v 109, 106090
01 Oct 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2023.106090
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2023.106090View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (Publisher-Specific),  Open

Abstract

Adolescent Attention Concussion Functional near-infrared spectroscopy Locomotion
Gait deficits are common after concussion in adolescents. However, the neurophysiological underpinnings of these gait deficiencies are currently unknown. Thus, the goal of this study was to compare spatiotemporal gait metrics, prefrontal cortical activation, and neural efficiency between concussed adolescents several weeks from injury and uninjured adolescents during a dual-task gait assessment. Fifteen concussed (mean age[SD]: 17.4[0.6], 13 female, days since injury: 26.3[9.9]) and 17 uninjured adolescents (18.0[0.7], 10 female) completed a gait assessment with three conditions repeated thrice: single-task walking, single-task subtraction, and dual-task, which involved walking while completing a subtraction task simultaneously. Gait metrics were measured using an inertial sensor system. Prefrontal cortical activation was captured via functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Neural efficiency was calculated by relating gait metrics to prefrontal cortical activity. Differences between groups and conditions were examined, with corrections for multiple comparisons. There were no significant differences in gait metrics between groups. Compared to uninjured, concussed adolescents displayed significantly greater Prefrontal cortical activation during the single-task subtraction condition (P = 0.01) and significantly greater prefrontal cortical activation (P = 0.01) during the dual-task condition, with lower neural efficiency based on cadence (P = 0.02), gait cycle duration (P = 0.03), step duration (P = 0.03), and gait speed (P = 0.04) during the dual-task condition. Our findings suggest that several weeks after injury concussed adolescents demonstrate lower neural efficiency and display a cost to gait performance when cognitive demand is high, e.g., while multitasking, suggesting that the concussed adolescent brain is unable to compensate when attention is divided between two concurrent tasks. • Instrumented dual-task gait protocol was employed in concussed adolescents. • Gait metrics, prefrontal cortical activation, and neural efficiency were assessed. • Concussed adolescents had lower neural efficiency during dual-task gait.

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12 Record Views
6 citations in Web of Science
5 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Engineering, Biomedical
Orthopedics
Sport Sciences
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