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Stand up to better pay attention, sit down to better subtract: a new perspective on the advantage of cognitive-motor interactions

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Abstract

The Stroop task and subtraction rely on the different cognitive processes and cerebral regions, but both these cognitive functions interact with posture. The study of cognitive-motor interactions falls under the concept of sharing resources, implying that resources for processing are limited. Researchers try to understand this interaction by constructing dual task (DT) paradigms. None have investigated the Stroop and subtraction tasks in three inherently simple postures in two groups of young adults. This study aimed to test whether a given posture benefits a given cognitive function when cognitive and postural tasks are not overly demanding and are underpinned by common cerebral structures. This study presents the results of 60 healthy young adults performing a subtraction task in three postures (sitting, standing, and walking) and 57 healthy young adults performing the Stroop task in the same three postures. Our results showed that performance at the Stroop task, in terms of number of correct answers and interference, are better while standing or even walking compared to sitting while subtraction is better sitting compared to standing and walking. Moreover, static postural parameters did not vary when in DT compared to single task. This means that there was no additional cost on posture when achieving the cognitive activity simultaneously. The absence of impact of the DT on postural parameters in static postures and the changes in the gait pace when walking suggest that cognitive tasks can be achieved in various postures, without being too costly on posture.

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Funding

The authors thank the editor and reviewers for considering this manuscript. We thank El Mostafa Laassel with Biometrics. Finally, we thank the Faculty of Human Sciences of Université Paris Cité for the BRIO funding and the Société Francophone Posture Équilibre et Locomotion for the “bourse sur projet”.

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  1. Université Paris Cité, Vision Action Cognition, 92100, Boulogne-Billancourt, France

    G. Abou Khalil, K. Doré-Mazars & A. Legrand

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GAK wrote the main manuscript text, KD-M and AL reviewed the manuscript.

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Abou Khalil, G., Doré-Mazars, K. & Legrand, A. Stand up to better pay attention, sit down to better subtract: a new perspective on the advantage of cognitive-motor interactions. Psychological Research 88, 735–752 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-023-01890-0

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