Citation

Kim SJ, Yoo GE. Front. Psychol. 2019; 10: 3027.

Affiliation

Department of Music Therapy, Graduate School, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03027

PMID

32010035

PMCID

PMC6978661

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effects of a rhythm-motor dual task intervention on cognitive and gait control for older adults in relation to fall prevention. Ten healthy older adults participated in a rhythm-motor dual task intervention and 10 participated in the control group. The intervention group received 16 30-min intervention sessions for 8 weeks. During the intervention sessions, participants engaged in walking or bimanual tapping as a primary motor task with concurrent rhythm tasks including playing instruments and rhythmic chanting or singing. At pretest and post-test, measures of cognition, balance/mobility, and gait were administered. A significant difference between groups was found for part B of the Trail Making Test (TMT-B) measure that involved executive control of attention. Also, changes in the gait ratio in the dual task condition of walking while playing an instrument were significantly different between groups. The findings in this study support the use of the rhythm-motor dual task intervention for increasing available cognitive resources and improving gait control, which are critical factors in fall prevention.

Copyright © 2020 Kim and Yoo.

Language: en

Keywords

dual task; fall prevention; healthy elderly; instrument playing; music intervention