Subjects’ eye movement behavior related to cognitive effort during gait was measured as subjects walked to perform low and high cognitive load tasks. We found that all pupil diameter measures, fixation durations, and the proportion of blink duration changed significantly during gait as a function of task load. In contrast, the number of fixations, saccade durations and travel time did not change significantly as a function of task load. Findings showed that pupil diameter was the best predictor of task load during one’s gait preceding the performance of the task. While other studies have demonstrated the importance of eye fixation characteristics during gait, our findings showed that eye measures related to pupil diameter were better at detecting cognitive load while walking to perform a task compared to eye fixation data. We also found that cognitive effort was not limited to just the performance of the task, but that it was also exerted during one’s gait preceding the performance of the task. Therefore, the additional attention demand caused by an increase in task complexity may result in less attentional resources being available to adequately handle distractions (such as obstacle avoidance) while walking to perform the task. Consequently, this may increase the likelihood of falls in those individuals with lower attentional capacity.

在步态执行低和高认知负荷任务时，测量与步态期间认知力有关的受试者眼动行为。我们发现，所有步态的瞳孔直径测量，注视持续时间和眨眼持续时间的比例在步态中都随着任务负荷的变化而显着变化。相反，注视点的数量，扫视的持续时间和旅行时间并没有随着任务负荷的变化而显着变化。研究结果表明，瞳孔直径是完成任务之前步态的最佳预测指标。尽管其他研究已经证明了步态时眼睛注视特征的重要性，但我们的研究结果表明，与瞳孔直径相关的眼部测量与步行时相比，能更好地检测行走时执行任务时的认知负荷。我们还发现，认知努力不仅限于完成任务，而且还可以在执行任务之前的步态中发挥作用。因此，由任务复杂性增加引起的额外注意力需求可能导致更少的注意力资源可用于在步行执行任务时充分处理分心（例如避开障碍物）。因此，这可能会增加注意力不集中的人跌倒的可能性。由任务复杂性增加引起的额外注意力需求可能会导致更少的注意力资源可用于在步行执行任务时充分处理分心（例如避开障碍物）。因此，这可能会增加注意力不集中的人跌倒的可能性。由任务复杂性增加引起的额外注意力需求可能会导致更少的注意力资源可用于在步行执行任务时充分处理分心（例如避开障碍物）。因此，这可能会增加注意力不集中的人跌倒的可能性。