Cognitive-motor interference during goal-directed upper-limb movements

Data was collected within the NEURAS project (protocol registered as NL48497.058.14), aimed to separately assess the functioning of systems involved in motor control (i.e., motor, sensory, cognitive) and their functional integration in various contexts (i.e., using different tasks and systematic manipulations of the mechanical/visual environment) in order to understand how these factors contribute to activity limitations in two highly prevalent neurological disorders (Parkinson’s disease and stroke). Within this project, among others, the possibilities of ‘markerless’ movement tracking (MT) devices (based on KinectTM) were explored to relate unobtrusively assessed characteristics of motor performance to contributing motor, (sensory,) and cognitive factors.In this study, we evaluated cognitive-motor interference during an upper-limb motor task. We used the cognitive auditory Stroop task (Cohen and Martin, 1975). The motor task involved goal-directed upper-limb movements to control a virtual mouse, presented on a LED TV, to collect virtual pieces of cheese (targets) as fast as possible while avoiding a virtual cat (obstacle). Single-task performances as well as dual-task effects (DTEs) in both the cognitive and motor domain were evaluated. Patterns of CMI were explored to evaluate overall attentional capacity and attention allocation.

本研究数据采集自NEURAS项目（注册协议号为NL48497.058.14），旨在分别评估运动控制相关系统（即运动、感觉、认知系统）的功能，以及它们在不同场景下的功能整合情况——具体通过设计不同任务并对机械/视觉环境进行系统性操控实现，以阐明上述因素如何在两种高发性神经系统疾病——帕金森病（Parkinson’s disease）与脑卒中（stroke）中导致活动受限。本项目中，研究团队还探索了基于Kinect™的‘无标记’运动追踪（movement tracking, MT）设备的应用潜力，旨在将通过无干扰方式评估的运动表现特征，与运动、（感觉）及认知相关影响因素建立关联。本研究针对一项上肢运动任务中的认知-运动干扰（cognitive-motor interference, CMI）展开评估，采用了听觉Stroop认知任务（Cohen与Martin，1975）。该运动任务要求受试者完成有目标导向的上肢运动，以操控LED电视上呈现的虚拟鼠标，尽可能快速地收集虚拟奶酪块（目标物），同时避开虚拟猫咪（障碍物）。研究同时评估了单任务表现，以及认知与运动双任务领域中的双任务效应（dual-task effects, DTEs）。此外，本研究还通过分析认知-运动干扰模式，对受试者的整体注意容量与注意分配能力进行评估。