Assessment of upper body accelerations in young adults with intellectual disabilities while walking, running, and dual-task running Marco Iosa a,⇑ , Daniela Morelli b , Enrica Nisi c , Carlo Sorbara c , Stefano Negrini d,e , Paola Gentili b , Stefano Paolucci a,b , Augusto Fusco a a Clinical Laboratory of Experimental Neurorehabilitation, Fondazione Santa Lucia I.R.C.C.S., Rome, Italy b Fondazione Santa Lucia I.R.C.C.S., Rome, Italy c Totti Soccer School, Rome, Italy d Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Brescia, Italy e Don Gnocchi Foundation I.R.C.C.S., Milan, Italy article info Article history: Available online 11 March 2014 PsycINFO classification: 2221 2330 3250 3720 Keywords: Kinematic analysis Accelerometry Down syndrome Autism disorders Pervasive developmental disorders Biomechanics abstract There is an increasing interest about upper body accelerations dur- ing locomotion and how they are altered by physical impairments. Recent studies have demonstrated that cognitive impairments affect gait stability in the elderly (i.e., their capacity for smoothing upper body accelerations during walking) but little attention has been paid to young adults with intellectual disabilities. The pur- pose of this study was to examine upright stability in young adults with intellectual disabilities during walking, running, and dual- task running (playing soccer). To this aim a wearable trunk- mounted device that permits on-field assessment was used to quantify trunk acceleration of 18 male teenagers with intellectual disabilities (IDG) and 7 mental-age-matched healthy children (HCG) who participated in the same soccer program. We did not find any significant difference during walking in terms of speed, whereas speed differences were found during running (p = .001). Upper body accelerations were altered in a pathology-specific manner during the dual task: the performance of subjects with autistic disorders was compromised while running and controlling the ball with the feet. Differences in upright locomotor patterns between IDG and HCG emerged during more demanding motor http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2014.02.005 0167-9457/Crown Copyright Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Clinical Laboratory of Experimental Neurorehabilitation, Fondazione Santa Lucia I.R.C.C.S., via Ardeatina 306, 00179 Rome, Italy. Tel.: +39 06 51501005. E-mail address: m.iosa@hsantalucia.it (M. Iosa). Human Movement Science 34 (2014) 187–195 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Human Movement Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/humov