Is it better to sit down, stand up or walk when performing memory and arithmetic activities?
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Is it better to sit down, stand up or walk when performing memory and arithmetic activities? G. Abou Khalil1 · K. Doré‑Mazars1 · P. Senot1 · D. P. Wang2 · A. Legrand1 Received: 20 February 2020 / Accepted: 17 June 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract It is now accepted that performing a cognitive task impacts postural control (Polskaia and Lajoie 2016; Vuillerme et al. Neurosci Lett 291: 77–80, 2000). However, the reverse impact of posture on cognitive performance is less documented. The present study investigated performance in two cognitive activities (memory and arithmetic) performed in three different postural conditions (sitting, standing, and walking). Overall, our data suggest that the posture adopted during a task can improve cognitive performance with a better answer for arithmetic in the sitting position than during walking but more correctly recalled words while walking. This study, thus, suggests that there could be preferential association between cognition and posture, i.e., memory cognitive performance can be improved when walking and mental arithmetic while sitting. Keywords Posture · Cognitive performance · Memory · Arithmetic
Introduction Regardless of the posture adopted, the human body is constantly subjected to the force of gravity exercised at its center. To maintain balance, it is necessary to coordinate the different parts of the body in relation to each other and to put coping strategies in place to successfully perform tasks such as walking and listening to a speech simultaneously. While for a long time the maintenance of balance has been considered purely automatic, it is now admitted that the regulation of posture involves attention (Bayot et al. 2018). Woollacott and Shumway-Cook (2002) postulated that postural control recruits attention based on the difficulty of the task, the age of the individual and their ability to maintain their posture. Furthermore, performing a cognitive activity always requires a certain posture such as sitting, standing or walking. Thus, postural control is part of the cognition-action loop requiring attention for its execution and impacting the parallel Communicated by Francesco Lacquaniti. * A. Legrand agathe.legrand@u‑paris.fr 1
Université de Paris, VAC, EA 7326, 92774 Boulogne‑Billancourt, France
Université de Paris, Sensorimotority platform, CNRS UMS2009, Paris, France
2
cognitive processes. The impact of posture on cognitive activity can be advantageous for the cognitive performance. This exploratory study aims to examine preferential association between posture and cognition. Indeed, while learning, young adults sit and perform cognitive activities in parallel. Is this posture the most appropriate for all cognitive activities? Is there a preferential posture–task combination to optimize cognitive performance?
Dual‑task paradigm Many studies have focused on the dual-task paradigm involving both a cognitive and postural task (Lajoie et al. 1993; Andersson et al. 2002; Schaefer et al. 2
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