Procedural reaction time and balance performance during a dual or single task in healthy collegiate students

Recent evidence has revealed deficiencies in the ability to split attention following concussive injury. The current concussion assessment paradigm used by sports medicine clinicians fails to grasp the interaction between balance and cognition necessary to participate in sport. Few studies have examined splitting attention in our current concussion assessment paradigm. The purpose of our study was to examine the effects of a dual task paradigm on procedural reaction time and balance in healthy subjects. To do this, subjects performed a series of balance and PRT tasks under the single task and dual task conditions during two test sessions performed exactly 14 days apart. While obtaining few significant findings, there appears to be a role for both the BESS and the SOT for utilization in a dual task methodology. Future research should examine the effect of a dual task for assessment and tracking recovery following concussive injury