• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.34-39
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of three cognitive tasks on gait at a preferred walking speed, and at a fast speed, using dual-task methodology. A total of 29 stroke patients participated in the study. All 29 subjects performed 2 motor tasks (10-meter walk task and timed up and go task each at a preferred and a fast speed) and three cognitive tasks [Stroop, word list generation (WLG), serial subtraction (SS)] under dual-task conditions [cognitive-motor interference (CMI)] in a randomized order. Gait speeds were measured in six different conditions. A repeated-measure analysis of variance was employed to compare the results of the Stroop training, WLG, and SS tasks during preferred and fast walking. A Bonferroni adjustment use for post hoc analysis. The level of statistical significance was set at ${\alpha}=.05$. A CMI effect occurred for performance of a 10-meter walking task at two different speed and a cognitive task (p<.05). Stroop had a significantly greater effect than SS and WLG (p<.05). The timed up and go task was affected when performed with fast walking speed during Stroop cognitive task (p<.05), but was not affected if performed with preferred walking speed during a cognitive task (p>.05). This study showed that CMI of Stroop can be used as a rehabilitation program for stroke patients.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.109-132
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• 2012

According to recent embodied cognition approach, understanding of actions is not based on abstract symbolic process but based on mental simulation of sensory-motor information related to those actions. As supporting evidence, motor resonance effect is a facilitation/interference effect of motor response in terms of similarity between observed action and concurrent own action. In the current research, we investigated this effect in the situation to perceive a complex social action perception and how it would be modulated by perspectives of construals of the social action scene. For this purpose, we created three kinds of fighting action scenes of two people in terms of body actions of the subject(ie., hitting, stepping, biting), and described them in two perspectives; active and passive. During the experiment, subjects had to verify the congruency of the picture and the description first, and if they are congruent, they had to do two different actions in terms of color of following cues. In the first experiment, subjects' response time for stepping on a pedal and pressing a button were analyzed for measuring motor resonance effect for the foot movement. In the second experiment, voice response time with a microphone and button pressing time were analyzed for the mouth movement motor resonance effect. Results showed the facilitation of the foot movement(in Exp1), and the mouth movement(in Exp2) only when the action scene was described in active perspective. Our results indicate that the motor resonance effect can be occurred during perception of social actions in the real life situation, but it can be also modulated by the perspective of the mental construal of the action event.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.31-36
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• 2009

Many daily activities require people to complete a motor task while walking. Substantial gait decrements during simultaneous attention to a variety of cognitive tasks have been shown by a group of severely injured neurological patients of mixed etiology. And previous studies have shown that the attentional load of a walking-associated task increased with its level of difficulty. The purpose of this study was to analyze subjects' gait changes are affected by the effects of arithmetic task difficulty and performance level. Participants performed a walking task alone, three different Arithmetic tasks while seated, and among them, two kinds of the simillar Arithmetic tasks in combination with walking. Reaction time and accuracy were recorded for two of the Arithmetic tasks. The mean values of the gait were measured using a Timed Up and Go test among 11 with post-stroke patients while walking with and without forward counting (WFC) and backward counting(WBC).There was significant Arithmetic Task Difficulty level between the 10-forward counting task condition(FC) and the 10-backward counting task condition(BC)(p=0.008). The mean values of T.U.G time were significantly higher under backward counting dual-task condition than during a simple walking task(p=0.009) and WFC(p=0.009). The change in T.U.G time during WFC was higher when compared with the change during a simple walking, but there was no significant difference (p=0.246). This study suggesting that a high interference could be linked with a high level of difficulty, whereas adaptive task enabled participants to perfectly share their attention between two concurrent tasks. Future research should determine whether dual task training can reduce gait decrements in dual task situations in people after stroke. And the dual-task-based exercise program is feasible and beneficial for improving walking ability in subjects with stroke.