2BALANCE: Test-retest reliability of a cognitive-motor dual-task protocol

PURPOSE: Aside from typical symptoms such as dizziness and vertigo, persons with vestibular disorders often have cognitive and motor problems. These symptoms have been assessed in single-task condition. However, dual-tasks assessing cognitive-motor interference might be an added value as they reflect daily life situations better. Therefore, the 2BALANCE protocol was developed. In the current study, the test-retest reliability of this protocol was assessed. METHODS: The 2BALANCE protocol was performed twice in 20 healthy young adults with an in-between test interval of two weeks. Two motor tasks and five different cognitive tasks were performed in single and dual-task condition. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), the standard error of measurement, and the minimal detectable difference were calculated. RESULTS: All cognitive tasks, with the exception of the mental rotation task, had favorable reliability results (0.26≤ICC≤0.91). The dynamic motor task indicated overall substantial reliability values in all conditions (0.67≤ICC≤0.98). Similar results were found for the static motor task during dual-tasking (0.50≤ICC≤0.92), but were slightly lower in single-task condition (–0.26≤ICC≤0.75). CONCLUSIONS: The 2BALANCE protocol was overall consistent across trials. However, the mental rotation task showed lowest reliability values.

The Influence of Mental Imagery Expertise of Pen and Paper Players versus Computer Gamers upon Performance and Electrocortical Correlates in a Difficult Mental Rotation Task

We investigated the influence of mental imagery expertise in 15 pen and paper role-players as an expert group compared to the gender-matched control group of computer role-players in the difficult Vandenberg and Kuse mental rotation task. In this task, the participants have to decide which two of four rotated figures match the target figure. The dependent measures were performance speed and accuracy. In our exploratory investigation, we further examined midline frontal theta band activation, parietal alpha band activation, and parietal alpha band asymmetry in EEG as indicator for the chosen rotation strategy. Additionally, we explored the gender influence on performance and EEG activation, although a very small female sample section was given. The expected gender difference concerning performance accuracy was negated by expertise in pen and paper role-playing women, while the gender-specific difference in performance speed was preserved. Moreover, gender differences concerning electro-cortical measures revealed differences in rotation strategy, with women using top-down strategies compared to men, who were using top-down strategies and active inhibition of associative cortical areas. These strategy uses were further moderated by expertise, with higher expertise leading to more pronounced activation patters, especially during successful performance. However, due to the very limited sample size, the findings of this explorative study have to be interpreted cautiously.

Spatial Cognition in Children With Physical Disability; What Is the Impact of Restricted Independent Exploration?

Given the developmental inter-relationship between motor ability and spatial skills, we investigated the impact of physical disability (PD) on spatial cognition. Fifty-three children with special educational needs including PD were divided into those who were wheelchair users (n = 34) and those with independent locomotion ability (n = 19). This division additionally enabled us to determine the impact of limited independent physical exploration (i.e., required wheelchair use) on spatial competence. We compared the spatial performance of children in these two PD groups to that of typically developing (TD) children who spanned the range of non-verbal ability of the PD groups. Participants completed three spatial tasks; a mental rotation task, a spatial programming task and a desktop virtual reality (VR) navigation task. Levels of impairment of the PD groups were broadly commensurate with their overall level of non-verbal ability. The exception to this was the performance of the PD wheelchair group on the mental rotation task, which was below that expected for their level of non-verbal ability. Group differences in approach to the spatial programming task were evident in that both PD groups showed a different error pattern from the TD group. These findings suggested that for children with both learning difficulties and PD, the unique developmental impact on spatial ability of having physical disabilities, over and above the impact of any learning difficulties, is minimal.

Interactions between simultaneous aerobic exercise and mental rotation

While the effects of aerobic exercise during a cognitive task on the performance of said cognitive task have been extensively studied, it has not been investigated whether cognitive performance during aerobic exercise influences the physical performance. For this, it is the main goal of the study to investigate the physical and cognitive performance during a simultaneous conduction of aerobic exercise and mental rotation. Forty-one German sport students cycled at 60% intensity while simultaneously performing a mental rotation task. In a within-subject design, both physical and cognitive performances were compared with isolated cycling and mental rotation as control conditions using both objective (heart rate and pedal cadence in the cycling task, reaction time and accuracy in the mental rotation task) and subjective (RPE) cognitive and physical measures. The results analyzed with hierarchical linear modeling revealed no effect of either simultaneous cognitive tasks on objective (heart rate) or subjective (RPE) physical effort, nor of simultaneous exercise on reaction time or accuracy in cognitive performance. However, we have found lower cadence during cognitive tasks, which was also stable in time compared to an increase in cadence during exercise control. Furthermore, our results demonstrated increased cognitive effort during exercise. Our findings suggest that increased effort, both physiological and cognitive, is required during combined physical and cognitive work in support of neurological resource conflicts caused by the differing demands of exercise and executive function.

Correlational Evidence for the Role of Spatial Perspective-Taking Ability in the Mental Rotation of Human-Like Objects

People can mentally rotate objects that resemble human bodies more efficiently than nonsense objects in the same/different judgment task. Previous studies proposed that this human-body advantage in mental rotation is mediated by one's projections of body axes onto a human-like object, implying that human-like objects elicit a strategy shift, from an object-based to an egocentric mental rotation. To test this idea, we investigated whether mental rotation performance involving a human-like object had a stronger association with spatial perspective-taking, which entails egocentric mental rotation, than a nonsense object. In the present study, female participants completed a chronometric mental rotation task with nonsense and human-like objects. Their spatial perspective-taking ability was then assessed using the Road Map Test and the Spatial Orientation Test. Mental rotation response times (RTs) were shorter for human-like than for nonsense objects, replicating previous research. More importantly, spatial perspective-taking had a stronger negative correlation with RTs for human-like than for nonsense objects. These findings suggest that human-like stimuli in the same/different mental rotation task induce a strategy shift toward efficient egocentric mental rotation.