Association between the level of attention and dual-task costs on postural sway and cognitive yield in children, adolescents, and young adults.

BACKGROUND: Postural stability requires attentional resources. Dual-task paradigms are used to investigate the attentional demand of the studied tasks. However, no studies have been conducted on the subjects' level of attention, analyzing its association with dual-task costs (DTC). RESEARCH QUESTION: To evaluate the attentional level and DTC on postural sway and cognitive yield in children, adolescents, and young adults, investigating age-related differences, and to analyze if the participants' attention level is associated with DTC. METHODS: Postural sway and cognitive-yield of 30 children, 24 adolescents, and 32 young adults were assessed in a dual-task paradigm. We calculated DTC on postural sway and cognitive yield. Attention level was tested using Psychological Battery for Attention Assessment. We tested the association between DTC and attention level. RESULTS: Young adults showed higher DTC on area and velocity of postural sway than children and adolescents. No differences in DTC on cognitive yield were found between the groups. Children showed lower attention levels than adolescents and young adults. Attention level was negatively associated with DTC on cognitive yield in young adults. Focused Attention is responsible for 24.4% of the variance in DTC on cognitive yield. CONCLUSION: Age impacts DTC on postural stability, but not on cognitive performance. The smaller changes in sway found in children/adolescents when dual-tasking, potentially reflect less developed attentional levels and postural control, which make them performing postural tasks closed to their stability boundaries, and, therefore, make them prioritize stability protection more than adults. Similar DTC on cognition between groups may reflect an equalization of the chosen cognitive task at everyone's difficulty level. The lower attention levels of children may reflect an attentional system in development, with prioritization o postural tasks when dual-tasking to maintain stability. Although attention level increases throughout age, attention only predicted DTC on cognition. Better Focused Attention's levels predicted lower DTC on cognitive yield for young adults.

Myocardial T1 mapping and extracellular volume quantification in patients with left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy.

Aims: From pathophysiological mechanisms to risk stratification and management, much debate and discussion persist regarding left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy (LVNC). This study aimed to characterize myocardial T1 mapping and extracellular volume (ECV) fraction by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), and investigate how these biomarkers relate to left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and ventricular arrhythmias (VA) in LVNC. Methods and results: Patients with LVNC (n = 36) and healthy controls (n = 18) were enrolled to perform a CMR with T1 mapping. ECV was quantified in LV segments without late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) areas to investigate diffuse myocardial fibrosis. Patients with LVNC had slightly higher native T1 (1024 ± 43 ms vs. 995 ± 22 ms, P = 0.01) and substantially expanded ECV (28.0 ± 4.5% vs. 23.5 ± 2.2%, P < 0.001) compared to controls. The ECV was independently associated with LVEF (ß = -1.3, P = 0.001). Among patients without LGE, VAs were associated with higher ECV (27.7% with VA vs. 25.8% without VA, P = 0.002). Conclusion: In LVNC, tissue characterization by T1 mapping suggests an extracellular expansion by diffuse fibrosis in myocardium without LGE, which was associated with myocardial dysfunction and VA, but not with the amount of non-compacted myocardium.