The association between APA characteristics and gait speed differs depending on task demands, suggesting that cognitive-motor constraints may modify the role of anticipatory control in gait performance.
Longer APA duration was associated with decreased gait speed under both single-task and dual-task conditions.
Greater anteroposterior amplitude of APA was associated with increased gait speed only under the dual-task condition, not under the single-task condition.
No significant association was observed between cognitive performance and gait speed under dual-task conditions.
APA characteristics and gait speed associations are task-dependent, differing between single-task and dual-task conditions.
First-step range of motion was assessed as an additional gait initiation parameter alongside APA characteristics.
This research suggests that the way our bodies prepare for walking — through automatic muscle activations called anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) that occur just before a first step — is linked to walking speed, but the nature of that link changes depending on whether a person is also doing a mental task at the same time. In a study of 31 healthy young adults, researchers found that taking longer to prepare before stepping was associated with slower walking in both normal and cognitively demanding conditions. However, making larger forward-and-backward preparatory movements was only associated with faster walking when participants were simultaneously performing a cognitive task, not during normal walking alone. This research suggests that when the brain is juggling both a mental task and the physical task of walking, the body may rely more heavily on the size of these preparatory movements to generate sufficient walking speed. In other words, the cognitive load appears to change how the brain coordinates preparation for walking, making certain aspects of that preparation more critical for performance than they would otherwise be. Notably, how well participants performed on the cognitive task itself was not related to their walking speed, indicating the relationship is specifically about the motor preparation strategy rather than overall cognitive ability. These findings matter because many real-world situations — such as walking while talking or thinking — involve simultaneous cognitive and physical demands. Understanding how mental load affects walking preparation could have implications for studying fall risk, rehabilitation, and mobility in populations where dual-tasking is a daily challenge, such as older adults or people with neurological conditions. The use of wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) to capture these measurements also highlights the potential for portable, real-world assessment of gait initiation strategies outside of laboratory settings.
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Upload Your LabsSakaki Y, Akagi H, Kawata A, Sawamura D, Mani H, Hasegawa N. (2026). IMU-Based Analysis of Task-Dependent Associations Between Anticipatory Postural Adjustments and Gait Speed Under Dual-Task Conditions.. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland). https://doi.org/10.3390/s26175630