ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Health and Clinical Neuroscience
This article is part of the Research TopicExercising body & brain: the effects of physical exercise on brain health Volume IIView all articles
Elderly Tai Chi practitioners exhibit superior multisensory integration in a dual-task paradigm
Provisionally accepted
- Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China
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Objective: This study aims to investigate whether elderly Tai Chi (TC) practitioners demonstrate enhanced multisensory integration when performing dual-tasking. Methods: Twenty-six TC practitioners (TCP) with at least five years of TC experience and twenty-eight controls (TC Naïve) without TC experience were recruited for this cross-sectional study. Standing was employed as the postural task and serial subtraction as the cognitive task to explore dual-task standing stability in the modified Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction on Balance (mCTSIB), which involved increasing the balance challenge via sensory conflict. The Centre of Gravity (COG) Sway Velocity was measured to evaluate standing stability in the mCTSIB. Results: There was no significant difference in standing stability between the TCP and TC Naïve groups in mCTSIB during single tasks. However, the TCP exhibited significantly lower COG Sway Velocity than the TC Naïves under dual-task conditions. In the TC Naïve group, the main effects of single/dual task (Task) and balance challenge level (Level) were significant, but the main effects of Task were not seen in the TCP group. Additionally, the TCP group showed a significant interaction effect between Task and Level. Conclusion: Elderly Tai Chi practitioners demonstrate enhanced dual-task standing stability when facing balance challenges.
Keywords: Dual task, multisensory integration, older adults, Postural strategy, Tai Chi
Received: 27 Dec 2025; Accepted: 11 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Dong, Zheng, Wu, Li, Zhong, Zhang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yajun Zhang
Yong Zhang
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