Dual-task related frontal cerebral blood flow changes in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: A functional diffuse correlation spectroscopy study

Introduction: In a worldwide aging population with a high prevalence of motor and cognitive impairment, it is paramount to improve knowledge about underlying mechanisms of motor and cognitive function and their interplay in the aging processes.

Methods: We measured prefrontal cerebral blood flow (CBF) using functional diffuse correlation spectroscopy during motor and dual-task. We aimed to compare CBF changes among 49 older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI) during a dual-task paradigm (normal walk, 2- forward count walk, 3-backward count walk, obstacle negotiation, and heel tapping). Participants with MCI walked slower during the normal walk and obstacle negotiation compared to participants with normal cognition (NC), while gait speed during counting conditions was not different between the groups, therefore the dual-task cost was higher for participants with NC. We built a linear mixed effects model with CBF measures from the right and left prefrontal cortex.

Results: MCI (n = 34) showed a higher increase in CBF from the normal walk to the 2-forward count walk (estimate = 0.34, 95% CI [0.02, 0.66], p = 0.03) compared to participants with NC, related to a right- sided activation. Both groups showed a higher CBF during the 3-backward count walk compared to the normal walk, while only among MCI, CFB was higher during the 2-forward count walk.

Discussion: Our findings suggest a differential prefrontal hemodynamic pattern in older adults with MCI compared to their NC counterparts during the dual-task performance, possibly as a response to increasing attentional demand.