A Multitude of Domains: How Attention Shapes Our Behavior from Health Promoting to Clinical Rehabilitation Settings

Dear Colleagues,

It is known that humans can perform concurrent tasks during motor activity, like generating a list of words or making calculations. These are known as dual tasks. Since the performance of a motor task can be negatively influenced by a concurrent cognitive task, researchers investigated this phenomenon, called cognitive interference, which is informative of the residual cognitive reserve of attentional resources. With aging, motor tasks such as walking may require a greater need for cognitive control and supervision, which evolves into an increased cost to accomplish the task. Moreover, this cognitive deficit has been linked to the risk of falls in older adults, and the use of dual task paradigms is increasing across clinical settings.

In the healthy elderly population, it has been found that the use of the dual task paradigm, conveyed through motor activity, promotes physical well-being and the improvement of overall cognitive–motor functioning.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue with original research or review articles addressing the potential role of attentive resources in shaping motor competencies.

This Special Issue aims to collect studies investigating the role of attention and other higher-order cognitive functions involved in the execution of a motor task or its use for rehabilitation purpose. Research using modern neurophysiological techniques such as eye tracking, EEG, fNIRS, and virtual and/or augmented reality combined with wearable sensors for the objective quantification of movement are encouraged.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Dual-task research in community-dwelling elderly people.
• Cognitive–motor tasks deepening innovative strategies based on the dual task paradigm to improve well-being and prevent the risk of injuries/disabilities in healthy elderly;
• The implementation of dual-task strategies for the motor rehabilitation of people affected by neurological disorders.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Daniela De Bartolo
Prof. Dr. Fabio Lucidi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• cognitive–motor training
• dual-task paradigm
• health promoting
• cognitive reserve
• cognitive interactions
• motor adaptation
• rehabilitation strategies
• neurorehabilitation
• neurological disorders
• community-dwelling elderly people