Brain gym exercises improve Eye-Hand coordination in elderly males.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Understanding the issues of the elderly or providing opportunities for a more fruitful ageing are some of the challenges that the officials and researchers in the area grapple with. The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a series of brain gym exercises on elderly males' eye-hand coordination. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty old males (60-80 years old) were selected using the convenience sampling technique and were divided equally into an experimental and a control group. After performing baseline measurements, the experimental group performed the brain gym exercises for 16 sessions; the sessions were held twice in week, and each session lasted for 30 min. The touch test disc was applied to assess the participants' eye-hand coordination. RESULTS: The results of mixed-ANOVA indicated a significant difference between the experimental and control groups (p < 0.05) and in favour of experimental group. CONCLUSION: The results were quite promising and have practical implications for the exercise and routine programs of rehabilitation centres and nursing homes. However, the limited research studies conducted in the area make use recommend conducting more studies using larger samples of both genders and exploiting other tasks of eye-hand coordination.

The Effect of Brain Anodal and Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Psychological Refractory Period at Different Stimulus-Onset Asynchrony in Non-Fatigue and Mental Fatigue Conditions.

The psychological refractory period (PRP) effect occurs when two stimuli that require separate responses are presented sequentially, particularly with a short and variable time interval between them. Fatigue is a suboptimal psycho-physiological state that leads to changes in strategies. In recent years, numerous studies have investigated the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on motor control. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of two tDCS methods, anodal and cathodal, on PRP in ten different conditions of stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs) under non-fatigue and mental fatigue conditions. The participants involved 39 male university students aged 19 to 25 years. In the pre-test, they were assessed using the PRP measurement tool under both non-fatigue and mental fatigue conditions. The mental fatigue was induced by a 30-min Stroop task. The test consisted of two stimuli with different SOAs (50, 75, 100, 150, 300, 400, 600, 900, 1200, and 1500 ms). The first was a visual stimulus with three choices (letters A, B, and C). After a random SOA, the second stimulus, a visual stimulus with three choices (colors red, yellow, and blue), was presented. Subsequently, participants were randomly assigned to the anodal, cathodal, and sham stimulation groups and underwent four consecutive sessions of tDCS stimulation. In the anodal and cathodal stimulation groups, 20 min of tDCS stimulation were applied to the PLPFC area in each session, while in the sham group, the stimulation was artificially applied. All participants were assessed using the same measurement tools as in the pre-test phase, in a post-test phase one day after the last stimulation session, and in a follow-up phase four days after that. Inferential statistics include mixed ANOVA, one-way ANOVA, independent, and dependent t-tests. The findings indicated that the response time to the second stimulus was longer at lower SOAs. However, there was no significant difference between the groups in this regard. Additionally, there was no significant difference in response time to the second stimulus between the fatigue and non-fatigue conditions, or between the groups. Therefore, tDCS had no significant effect. There was a significant difference between mental fatigue and non-fatigue conditions in the psychological refractory period. Moreover, at lower SOAs, the PRP was longer than at higher SOAs. In conditions of fatigue, the active stimulation groups (anodal and cathodal) performed better than the sham stimulation group at higher SOAs. Considering the difference in response to both stimuli at different SOAs, some central aspects of the response can be simultaneously parallel. Fatigue also affects parallel processing. This study supports the response integration phenomenon in PRP, which predicts that there will be an increase in response time to the first stimulus as the interval between the presentation of the two stimuli increases. This finding contradicts the bottleneck model. In this study, the effectiveness of cathodal and anodal tDCS on response time to the second stimulus and PRP was found to be very small.

The effect of internal, external, and holistic focus of attention on standing long jump performance in novice and skilled karatekas.

An important application for training instructions is found in directing one's attentional focus. This direction can occur in different internal, external, or holistic forms. However, comparison between these three forms of instructions is a relatively recent development rarely reported at different skill levels or various sports including karate. Therefore, the present study attempts to investigate the effects of three forms of instructions on standing long jump performance in skilled and novice karatekas. The participants were 60 skilled and novice karatekas (all females; mean age: 21.32 ± 1.65) who completed 12 standing long jump trials under different focus conditions (3 trials for each condition: internal, external, holistic and control condition) in a counterbalanced order. Our findings suggested significant main effects, indicating that skilled karatekas outperformed the novices. The findings also showed that regardless of skill levels, the participants exhibited similar performance under external and holistic focus conditions while performance in both of these conditions was superior compared to performance under internal focus and control conditions. No difference was observed between the control and internal focus conditions. It seems that skilled and novice karatekas may benefit from holistic and external focus of attention instructions which enhance their motor performance. Thus, it is recommended that coaches should incorporate these two types of attentional focus instructions into their training sessions.

The effect of a visual illusion and self-controlled practice on motor learning in children at risk for developmental coordination disorder.

Numerous efforts have been made to test the OPTIMAL theory of motor learning in healthy children and adult populations. However, only a small number of studies have tested this theory in children with cognitive-motor disorders, such as developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The present study aims to examine the individual and additive effects of a visual illusion and self-controlled practice on a golf putting task in children at risk for DCD based on the OPTIMAL theory. Forty children at risk for DCD (mean age = 8.57 ± 1.05 years) were randomly assigned to four experimental groups (1-small visual illusion + self-controlled practice; 2-big visual illusion + self-controlled practice; 3-small visual illusion + yoked; 4-big visual illusion + yoked). Following 12 pretest trials of a golf putting task, the participants completed 5 blocks of 12 trials of practice on the first day. A retention test (12 trials) and a transfer dual-task test (12 trials) were conducted on the second day. The results indicated that in retention test the big visual illusion + self-controlled practice group was significantly better than the small visual illusion + yoked group (p = 0.01), while there was not any other significant difference between groups at retention test as well as between all groups at practice phase and transfer test (p > 0.05 for all comparisons). In other words, an additive effect has been observed just in the retention test but not the practice phase as well as transfer test. In general, the results of this study support the OPTIMAL theory of motor learning in children at risk for DCD and suggests to all educators who work with these children to use the combination of the visual illusion with self-controlled practice to improve the motor learning of children at risk for DCD.

Effects of self-controlled practice and focus of attention on free throw accuracy: Exploring optimal theory among skilled basketball players.

Based on the OPTIMAL theory of motor learning (Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016), optimal motor performance and learning will occur through the influence of the two motivational factors of enhanced expectancies and autonomy support (self-controlled practice) as well as the attentional factor of the external focus of attention. Recently, some researchers tested this theory on different motor tasks using novices. However, it seems that this theory has not been tested in skilled athletes. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of self-controlled practice and focus of attention on the accuracy of free throws of skilled basketball players. The participants were 56 skilled adult basketball players (28 men; average age = 27.75 ± 3.31 years; 28 women, average age = 27.18 ± 3.63 years) who were randomly divided into two self-control and yoked groups. Each group performed 80 basketball free throw trials in four different attention conditions (external, internal, holistic, control) as a counterbalance, so that each participant made 20 basketball free throws in each attention condition. The results showed that skilled basketball players in the self-controlled group performed better than the yoked group when they could choose the color of the ball. The results also showed that focusing on external or holistic cues compared to focusing on internal cues improved basketball free throw performance in skilled players. However, the results did not show a difference between external and holistic attention with the control condition. The control condition was also similar to the internal attention condition. In summary, the results of this research could only partially support the OPTIMAL theory and showed that each of the two variables of self-controlled practice and external or holistic focus of attention separately and independently affect the motor performance of skilled basketball players and their additive effect was not observed. It is suggested that coaches try to use autonomy support as well as external or holistic focus of attention in practical situations to improve the motor performance of skilled athletes.

Neurofeedback training and motor learning: the enhanced sensorimotor rhythm protocol is better or the suppressed alpha or the suppressed mu?

A large number of previous studies have examined how different neurofeedback-based techniques may influence motor learning. However, only a few studies attempted to compare the effects of these different techniques on motor learning. Therefore, the present study attempts to examine the effects of neurofeedback training on motor learning in novice golfers, using three protocols, namely enhanced sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) at Cz, suppressed alpha waves at Fz, and suppressed mu waves at Cz. The participants were 64 adults (32 females; mean age = 22.31 ± 2.25 years). The study consisted of a pretest stage (day 1), intervention (6 sessions, over two weeks, 3 sessions per week), short-term retention (one day after intervention), and long-term retention (two weeks after intervention); in the pretest and short-term and long-term retention, motor performance for golf putting (12 trials) as well as amplitudes of SMR wave at Cz, alpha at Fz, and Mu at Cz were recorded. During each intervention session, the participants in three neurofeedback groups and a sham group first performed neurofeedback training (enhanced SMR at Cz, suppressed alpha at Fz, and suppressed Mu at Cz) for 20 min. Then, the participants in all groups performed three blocks of 12 trials consisting of golf putting training. The results indicated no difference between the sham and the experimental groups in the acquisition stage, as individuals in all groups experienced similar improvement in putting accuracy. However, in the short-term retention, all the three neurofeedback groups outperformed the sham group, although in the long-term retention, only the SMR group and the Alpha group showed a better performance than the sham group while the Mu group did not exhibit a notably better performance than the sham group. Our results also showed significant variations in the amplitudes of the SMR, alpha, and mu waves depending on the neurofeedback intervention provided, while no significant variation was observed in the sham group. Based on these results, it is recommended that coaches should make further use of enhanced SMR at Cz or suppressed alpha at Fz as their neurofeedback interventions to facilitate longer-term motor learning in golfers.

Both Sensorimotor Rhythm Neurofeedback and Self-Controlled Practice Enhance Motor Learning and Performance in Novice Golfers.

A major concern voiced by motor behavior scientists is to find useful practice techniques that can be effective in improving motor learning and performance. Neurofeedback and self-controlled practice are among the techniques that have recently drawn attention from specialists in this area. The present study examined the additive and individual effects of sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) neurofeedback as well as self-controlled practice on motor learning and performance in novice golfers. In this semi-empirical study, forty adults (20 females, Meanage = 26.10, SD = 5.56 years) were conveniently selected and randomly assigned to four groups: (1) neurofeedback/self-controlled practice, (2) neurofeedback/yoked practice, (3) sham/self-controlled practice, and (4) sham/yoked practice. The participants performed golf putting task in four stages, namely pretest (12 trials), intervention (one day after pretest; 6 sessions, 36 trails each), post-test (one day after intervention; 12 trials), and follow-up (two weeks after interventions; 12 trials). In addition, the participants had their EEG (SMR wave in Cz point) recorded during pretest, post-test, and follow-up. The results indicated that, although no additive effect was observed for the two practices during different stages of the experiment (p > 0.05), in acquisition and post-test stages, SMR neurofeedback and self-controlled practice independently facilitated golf putting (p ≤ 0.05). However, in the follow-up test, only the neurofeedback practice maintained its positive effects (p ≤ 0.05). The results also showed that participation in SMR neurofeedback practice can enhance the power of the SMR wave (p ≤ 0.05), regardless of the type of the self-controlled practice used. In sum, the two practice techniques seem to be independently effective in facilitating motor learning in instructional settings, particularly for golfers.

Gender stereotypes and motor performance: How explicit and implicit stereotypes influence girls standing long jump and anxiety.

OBJECTIVES: Inducing a negative stereotype toward women usually leads to a decrease in women's motor performance. Given that most studies have focused on explicit stereotype induction among adults, the main aim of this study was to investigate the effects of explicit and implicit gender stereotypes on standing long jump performance in children. The second aim was to investigate the effects of these same manipulations on children's state anxiety. DESIGN: A mixed model design with within-between-subject was used with standing long jump performance and state anxiety as dependent variables. METHOD: Two hundred and four children (Mage = 10.95 years, SDage = 0.85) participated in this study and were randomly assigned, after baseline measurement, into four different groups (i.e., explicit/implicit vs. explicit vs. implicit vs. control). Specifically, participants performed 8 trials of standing long jump (4 trials during the baseline phase and 4 trials during the experimental phase). Children also completed the competitive state Anxiety Inventory at baseline as well as immediately after the trials. RESULTS: For motor performance, children in the explicit/implicit group and in the implicit group were negatively affected by the stereotype manipulation during all trials whereas participants in the explicit group were only negatively impacted during the last two trials. However, regarding state anxiety, children were negatively affected after both explicit only and implicit only manipulations and more significantly after explicit/implicit manipulation. CONCLUSIONS: The present research showed that the explicit and implicit manipulations influenced motor performance differently, but that these two manipulations increased state anxiety in the same way. Moreover, the combination of the explicit and implicit inductions leads to a greater significant negative influence on state anxiety but not motor performance.

An Examination of the Contextual Interference Effect and the Errorless Learning Model during Motor Learning.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the combined effects of random and block practice, with errorless and errorful conditions, on motor learning. One hundred-twenty participants (all male, Mage = 21.19 ± 1.4 years) were randomly assigned to one of eight groups. Participants completed a dart throwing task across the experimental phases. In the retention test, evidence supporting the CI effect was found in the 'errorless' conditions, but not in the 'errorful' conditions. In the transfer tests, the findings indicated that the impact of errorless and errorful conditions on participants' automation levels depends on the structure of practice. Participants in the Random-Errorless group performed better in the transfer tests than those in the Random group and the Random-Errorful group, suggesting greater automation levels following errorless practice.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on physical activity and mental health status of Iranian people.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious disease caused by acute respiratory syndrome that can negatively impact physical activity as well as mental health of people in the world. Since Iran is one of the countries deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on physical activity behaviours, as well as on mental health indicators among Iranian people. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 335 participants were included (155 males, mean age = 30.06 ± 14.58 years). Participants were selected through the convenience sampling from different parts of Iran mainly through virtual social networks and filled out an electronic questionnaire in the form of Google Form online survey measuring physical activity behaviours (The International Physical Activity Questionnaire; IPAQ; Short Form) and two mental health indicators-self-esteem (Rosenberg self-esteem scale) and social physical anxiety (7-items social physique anxiety scale). The questionnaires were provided to the participants in the spring of 2021 for 15 days and they were asked to answer it in two periods before the outbreak of coronavirus (winter 2020) and the period during the outbreak of coronavirus (spring 2021). RESULTS: The results showed that participants reported significant differences from before to during the pandemic in all three variables of physical activity (significant decreases), self-esteem (significant decreases), and social physical anxiety (significant increases) regardless of participants' gender. The results of correlation test between changes in physical activity and changes in mental health indicators showed that COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted self-esteem and social physical anxiety. However, we have not found any significant association of physical activity's change with social physical anxiety or self-esteem's changes before and during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the present study indicate a detrimental effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical activity and mental health among Iranian people. Public policies aiming to buffer the negative impact on COVID-19 Iranians' health are urgently needed.

A Systematic Review on Detraining Effects after Balance and Fall Prevention Interventions.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, lockdowns have been implemented to fight off infections in countries around the world. Whilst this measure is without a doubt effective against spreading infection, it might also decrease participation in exercise. For older adults, exercise is particularly important in the prevention of falls, and sudden detraining because of a lockdown or due to other causes might have detrimental consequences. This systematic review study aims to assess what is currently known on detraining effects for balance outcomes. Nine studies were included within this review. Results suggest that detraining effects could already be significant as early as 4 weeks after stopping the intervention. Programs that specifically focus on improving balance were more robust against detraining, with most positive effects still being present after 8 weeks. However, even with a specific focus on balance, studies started to show some signs of detraining. The current study is limited by the low number of included studies in the review, indicating a need to further confirm these results.

Feedback after good versus poor trials enhances motor learning in children / Feedback após boas versus más tentativas melhora a aprendizagem motora em crianças

The present study investigated whether children would benefit from feedback (knowledge of results, KR) provided after relatively good as opposed to poor trials. The task required participants to throw beanbags at a circular target that was placed on the floor at a distance of 3 m. Twenty-eight elementary school children (mean age: 10.6 years) participated in this experiment. The practice phase consisted of 10 blocks of 6 trials. After each 6-trial block, one group (KR good) received KR on the 3 most accurate tosses, whereas another group (KR poor) was given KR on the 3 least accurate ones. Participants were not informed about the trials on which they were provided feedback. Immediately following the practice phase, participants completed the intrinsic motivation inventory. One day after the practice phase, a retention test consisting of 10 trials without KR was conducted. The results demonstrated that learning was enhanced by providing KR after good trials during practice. Furthermore, the questionnaire results revealed that learners' intrinsic motivation was increased by positive feedback. The present findings add to the accumulating evidence that the motivational effects of feedback have a direct impact on learning.

O presente estudo investigou se a aprendizagem motora de crianças pode ser beneficiada pelo "feedback" (conhecimento de resultados -CR) fornecido após tentativas relativamente boas de prática, ao invés de após tentativas ruins. A tarefa requeriu que os participantes arremessassem saquinhos de feijão em um alvo circular fixo, posicionado no chão, a uma distância de 3 m. Vinte e oito crianças do ensino fundamental (idade média: 10,6 anos) participaram deste experimento. A fase de prática consistiu de 10 blocos de seis tentativas. Após cada bloco de tentativas, um grupo (KR "good") recebeu CR relacionado aos três arremessos mais precisos, enquanto ao outro grupo (KR "poor") foi fornecido CR relacionado aos três arremessos menos precisos. Os participantes não foram informados sobre as tentativas nas quais o "feedback" seria fornecido. Imediatamente após a fase de prática, os participantes preencheram o questionário de motivação intrínseca. Um dia após a fase de prática, foi conduzido um teste de retenção composto por 10 tentativas, sem CR. Os resultados demonstraram que a aprendizagem foi melhorada através do fornecimento de CR após as boas tentativas de prática. Ainda, os resultados do questionário revelaram que a motivação intrínseca dos aprendizes foi aumentada pelo "feedback" positivo. Os presentes achados adicionam evidências de que os efeitos motivacionais do "feedback" possuem um impacto direto sobre a aprendizagem.