Abstract
The current study seeks to examine a potential relationship between speech comprehension and postural control in older adults using a dual-task paradigm. Younger and older adults simultaneously performed a speech comprehension task while manually balancing a visual inverted pendulum model of postural control using a joystick. When both tasks were difficult, younger adults were less accurate on the speech comprehension task and had more frequent falls on the visual balancing task compared to easier dual-task combinations and single-task baselines. Older adults generally performed worse on both tasks compared to younger adults and performed differentially worse on the visual balancing task in all dual-task conditions compared to single-task conditions, but their speech comprehension performance was generally not impaired while dual-tasking. These results suggest that under dual-task conditions, younger adults are able to complete both tasks through sharing of central processing resources, while older adults prioritize the speech comprehension task resulting in decrements in performance on the visual balancing task. The difference between older and younger adults in the capacity to divide central processing resources in this visual balancing dual-task paradigm may aid in explaining the high incidence of falls in aging populations.