Developmental changes of multitasking in settings involving postural control

The proposed research targets fundamental processes in real-life multitasking settings, like following a conversation while standing among people at a reception. Specifically, we investigate how such situations provide an extra challenge to postural control in children, middle-aged and older adults and individuals with age-related hearing impairment. The theoretical framework of this project focusses on the utilization of domain-general processes in multitasking and how they can at least partially compensate domain-specific losses such as an age-related decrease in proprioceptive reliability or speech-perception. Domain-general processes which we believe to be involved in multitasking include core cognitive control functions such as working memory updating, inhibition and task switching.

The first step of this project is to improve the methodological and conceptual framework of postural control quantification. Current gold standard methods in posturography suffer from important limitations. Discrepancies in the interpretation of novel approaches trying to solve these issues have limited its potential and usage. We apply and elaborate on an existing technique of stochastic nonlinear data analysis to determine the key component processes underlying postural control in existing data sets to put forward a refined model of its lifespan changes. Secondly, we utilize this model to adult performances in multitasking experiments in which we systematically manipulate the degree of cognitive control required by component tasks and their coordination. We do this by conducting a study to determine multitasking performance under concurrent demands of postural control and auditory working memory in young and older adults. Our studies promise fundamental insights into the mechanisms that limit everyday communication and mobility in the elderly and will allow to disambiguate extant theories of  postural control multitasking and its lifespan development.