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Attentional influences on the performance of secondary physical tasks during posture control

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Abstract

We examined the influence of attentional focus and cognitive load on motor performance in a dynamic stick balancing task during the maintenance of upright posture. Dynamical analyses of postural fluctuations revealed the existence of a drift and correct mechanism, with correlational structure reflecting the demands of the stick balancing task. In contrast, experimentally manipulated attentional foci (internal, external) did not influence the variability of postural or fingertip trajectories. However, dual-task cognitive stick balancing performance resulted in decreased variability of postural and fingertip time series. These results are discussed in the context of dual timescale models for posture control and stick balancing.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by an NSERC Discovery grant and a CRC awarded to the last author. The first author was supported by an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate scholarship. We wish to thank Jason Boulet and two anonymous reviewers for comments that helped improve this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sensorimotor Neuroscience Laboratory, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, L8S 2K1, Canada

    Tyler Cluff, Taher Gharib & Ramesh Balasubramaniam

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  1. Tyler Cluff
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  2. Taher Gharib
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  3. Ramesh Balasubramaniam
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Correspondence to Ramesh Balasubramaniam.

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Cluff, T., Gharib, T. & Balasubramaniam, R. Attentional influences on the performance of secondary physical tasks during posture control. Exp Brain Res 203, 647–658 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2274-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2274-7

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