Sex-related features of walking with cognitive tasks

The organization of walking and its disorders remain one of the most difficult sections of the physiology of the nervous system and neurology. The purpose of the work is to analyze the sexual features of the spatio-temporal parameters of the person walking and the directions of their changes in the conditions of performing additional cognitive tasks. Sex-related features of human walking with cognitive tasks are investigated. 608 individuals of both sexes aged 12-43 years were examined by GAITRite®. Consistent naming of animals and consistent subtraction of 7 starting at 100 were used as cognitive tasks. Statistical processing of the obtained results was performed in the license package “STATISTICA 5.5” using parametric estimation methods. At performing the first (simpler) cognitive task in all age groups of men step length, stride length, step extremity ratio, support base, toe-in-out were increased. Temporal parameters in adolescents of both genders did not differ. Girls have longer step time, cycle time, single support, swing time and a slower velocity. The integral index of walking quality (FAP) tended to decrease in all examined groups: in adolescent males by 13.3±3.9 %; in young men by 14.6±2.2 %; in adolescent women by 15.3±1.8 %; in young women by 14.4±1.1 %; in middle-aged women 7.3±4.8 %. Boys and girls performed more complex cognitive tasks with reduced spatial and temporal parameters (primarily by increasing the double support and swing time), the support base and toe-in-out were stable. The step cycle was rebuilt. The support base and toe-in-out remained unchanged both in boys and girls. The boys were moving at a faster velocity, taking more steps per minute. The step time right, cycle time for each leg, single support time and double support time in girls lasted much longer. FAP declined sharply by 30.4 % in boys and by 33.4 % in girls, indicating a major reorganization of basic mechanisms for regulating walking stability. Such a decrease in FAP leads to a decrease in the level of the balance maintaining and a decrease in body stability during movement, which means that it increases the risk of falls. A complex cognitive task led to a decrease in walking performance and a more critical decrease in the quality of walking in favor of moving forward and maintaining the balance. Thus, walking is not an automated process, but requires the use of a variety of additional CNS resources, primarily attention and cognitive resources.