Neuroscience
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Review
Influence of a visual-verbal Stroop test on standing and walking performance of older adults.
The dual task (DT) paradigm has been used to investigate decrements in balance performance while walking and standing in fall prevention studies with older adults. However, there are inconsistent findings whether balance performance decreases or increases in DT situations. Following different theoretical models (e.g. limited resource hypothesis or cross domain competition model), these inconsistent findings can be explained by task settings and task complexity. ⋯ Moreover, not all modified gait variables could be defined as negative DT costs. Increased SW and decreased step length might be used to compensate influences on lateral stability while demands on motor-cognitive resources increase. Further, drawing conclusions from a standing task for walking conditions might lead to misinterpretations.
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Reversal learning paradigms are among the most widely used tests of cognitive flexibility and have been used as assays, across species, for altered cognitive processes in a host of neuropsychiatric conditions. Based on recent studies in humans, non-human primates, and rodents, the notion that reversal learning tasks primarily measure response inhibition, has been revised. In this review, we describe how cognitive flexibility is measured by reversal learning and discuss new definitions of the construct validity of the task that are serving as a heuristic to guide future research in this field. We also provide an update on the available evidence implicating certain cortical and subcortical brain regions in the mediation of reversal learning, and an overview of the principal neurotransmitter systems involved.