Human movement control requires attention to accurately tune motor commands in response to environmental changes. Dual task paradigms are used to test the role of attention on motor performance. Usually the tasks used have little resemblance with every day experience. Here we ask: Does a common cognitive task, such as a mobile phone conversation, compromise motor performance on stairs? Eight young participants negotiated an instrumented seven-step staircase. Stair negotiation while talking on a mobile phone was compared to normal stair negotiation. Stepping parameters, jerk cost (measure of smoothness of locomotion) and step clearance were measured. When talking on a mobile phone, participants' overall body velocity (mean(sd): Ascent 0.534(0.026) vs 0.511(0.024) m/s, Descent 0.642(0.026) vs 0.511(0.024) m/s, No phone/Phone respectively) and cadence decreased significantly (Ascent 75.8(5.8) vs 65.6(4.4) steps/min, Descent 117.4(4.2) vs 108.6(6.0) steps/min, No Phone/Phone respectively). Pelvis and feet jerk cost also changed significantly, mostly decreasing with phone use. Foot clearance did not show significant changes between No Phone and Phone conditions. These pilot results show that, even for young, healthy and cognitively intact individuals, talking on a mobile phone whilst negotiating a staircase induces measurable changes in motor performance. Participants moved slowly but more smoothly, reducing the motor control cost, possibly at the expense of movement accuracy. The reduction in motor performance is likely to be due to the difficulty in integrating the two sub-tasks. These results suggest that even young, healthy individuals show stair gait impairment when simultaneously negotiating stairs and performing another cognitive task, such as talking on the phone.

中文翻译：

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使用手机会损害步态：对年轻人的一项初步研究。

人体运动控制需要注意，以根据环境变化准确调整电动机命令。双重任务范式用于测试注意力对运动表现的作用。通常，所使用的任务与日常经验几乎没有相似之处。在这里，我们问：诸如手机通话之类的常见认知任务是否会损害楼梯上的运动表现？八名年轻参与者谈判了一个有仪器的七步楼梯。将在手机上通话时的楼梯协商与正常的楼梯协商进行了比较。测量了踏步参数，急动成本（运动平稳性的度量）和踏步间隙。在手机上通话时，参与者的整体速度（平均值（标准偏差）：上升0.534（0.026）vs.0.511（0.024）m / s，下降0.642（0.026）vs 0.511（0.024）m / s，分别没有电话/电话）和节奏显着下降（上升75.8（5.8）vs 65.6（4.4）步/分钟，下降117.4（4.2）vs 108.6（6.0）步/分钟，分别没有电话/电话）。骨盆和脚抽搐的费用也发生了显着变化，大部分随着使用电话而减少。脚间隙没有显示“无电话”和“电话”条件之间的显着变化。这些初步结果表明，即使对于年轻，健康且认知完好的个人，在谈判楼梯的同时通过手机通话也会引起运动性能的明显变化。参与者缓慢但平稳地移动，从而降低了电机控制成本，可能会牺牲运动精度。电机性能的下降很可能是由于很难将两个子任务整合在一起。这些结果表明，即使年轻，