The cognitive¹ challenges of walking while texting are well known, both to scientists and to those of us who have ambled² into a light pole or a fellow pedestrian or have been on the receiving end of someone else's distracted movements. Strolling while talking on the phone — or, more particular, texting — ties up the brain's relatively³ limited working attentional resources, most researchers would agree, much as those activities do when you are driving.

边走边发短信会带来认知挑战，这一点不仅仅为科学家，也为那些曾经一头撞上电线杆或者别的路人，或者曾被走神的人撞上的人来说所熟知。边走边使用电话——或者更具体地说，发短信——涉及到的工作记忆资源相对有限，至少不会超过你开车时发短信涉及的大脑资源，对此大部分研究人员都认同。

But walking is not driving. In some ways, it's more demanding. You sit while you drive. Walking requires a multitude of orchestrated actions and reactions. But whether and how using a phone affects the physical process of walking and whether those impacts might have health costs have been little explored.

但走路跟开车不同。在某种角度来说，它提出的要求更高。开车时你是坐着的，而走路需要多种行为和反应协调一致。不过，用手机是否或如何影响走路这种生理过程，以及这种影响是否会产生健康损害，这些还甚少得到研究。

So researchers at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, rounded up 26 healthy adults for a study, published last month in PLOS One, and sent them strolling repeatedly along a 28-foot stretch of hallway while cameras captured their steps. In one setup, the volunteers walked without a phone; in another, they read a long text on a phone's screen; and in a third, they texted "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." The volunteers were told to hold the phone and type as they usually would. They were also asked to try to walk as normally as possible.

澳大利亚布里斯班的昆士兰大学(University of Queensland)研究人员因此做了一项试验，征集了26名健康成人，并请他们在一条长为28英尺的走廊上反复行走，用摄像机记录下他们的脚步。一次安排这些志愿者在走路时不拿手机；另一次边走边在手机上看一条长长的短信；第三次则是边走边发短信，内容为：敏捷的褐色狐狸跳过了懒狗。志愿者需要手持手机，用习惯的方式来编辑短信内容，同时需要走起路来尽量跟平常一样。这份研究上月发表在《公共科学图书馆·综合》(PLOS One)上。