Maintaining Balance in Conditions of Sensory Conflict.

The purpose of this practicum project was to investigate the effect of aging during a dual-task paradigm involving a postural and cognitive task. The aim was to examine the coordination between postural control involving upper extremity movements and cognitive decision making in conditions corresponding to functional realities. A dynamic virtual environment was used to measure postural sway and performance. Older adults had increased response times and accuracy compared to younger adults. Sway increased for both age groups, with a larger effect on the older subjects, as the cognitive task complexity increased. These results support observations that postural balance is influenced by the concurrent performance of a cognitive task and that performance of a cognitive task appears to have a more deleterious effect on postural control in older adults compared to young.