Rezvan Azimi; Behrouz Abdoli; Mohammad Ali Sanjari; Reza Khosrowabadi
Abstract
Introduction: Many studies evaluate the interaction between cognition and posture but the effect of cognitive task difficulty and articulation on postural control remains inconclusive. The purpose of the present study was to examine the interaction effect of cognitive task difficulty and articulation ...
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Introduction: Many studies evaluate the interaction between cognition and posture but the effect of cognitive task difficulty and articulation on postural control remains inconclusive. The purpose of the present study was to examine the interaction effect of cognitive task difficulty and articulation on postural control.Methods: Twenty healthy young volunteers (Mean age 22 ± 2.3 years) performed four random conditions while standing on a force platform. Conditions involved combinations of two level of cognitive task difficulty (easy and difficult cognitivetask) and two level of verbal response (simultaneous and final).Results: Two-way ANOVA (significant level P<0.05) results demonstrated marked increased in the standard deviation and area of 95% confidence ellipse of the center of pressure in the difficult cognitive task condition with simultaneous verbalresponse. (P<0.05). Also, in the final response condition, difficult cognitive task reduced area of 95% confidence ellipse.Conclusion: According to the results of the present research, it seems that the difficult cognitive task requires a greater part of attention capacity; subsequently,attention is withdrawn from the postural task and automatic control regulates posture more efficiently through unconscious, fast, and reflexive processes. Also, postural control is simultaneously affected by the difficulty of cognitive task and articulation.Therefore, for designing appropriate interventions, it seems necessary to pay attention to the interactive effects of the difficulty and articulation of cognitive task.
Davood Homanian; Ayoub Asadi; Mehdi Takhtaei; Zahra Jahanbani; Mojtaba Rahmani
Abstract
Numerous studies have examined the effects of focus of attention and quiet eye on motor performance, however the effects of these two variables in different load of task are ambiguous. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of the internal and external focus of attention ...
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Numerous studies have examined the effects of focus of attention and quiet eye on motor performance, however the effects of these two variables in different load of task are ambiguous. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of the internal and external focus of attention instructions on quiet eye and accuracy of dart-throwing in two intensity of the secondary task. participants were 20 novice persons in dart-throwing that selected by convenience sampling; and in four dual-task conditions of internal attention-without tone estimation, external attention-without tone estimation, internal attention-with tone estimation, and external attention-with tone estimation performed dart throwing in counterbalance form that at the same time their gaze data recorded by binoculars eye tracking system. The result of accuracy showed that participants in external rather than internal attention condition and low- intensity rather than high-intensity condition had less radial error. The result of quiet eye showed that only the main effect of the secondary task was significant that participants in high-intensity of the secondary task rather low had more quiet eye duration. These results highlight the importance of external focus of attention in low and high secondary task load conditions for dart-throwing performance and direct the future research to explore more deeply the role of the quiet eye and attentional focus effects in dart-throwing performance.
Jamil Mansouri; Reza Rostami; Ahmad Shahvaroughi; Sadegh Ranjbar
Abstract
Many techniques have been invented to enhance sport performance which nowadays are used by athletes in different sport fields. Among these techniques, neurofeedback as a noninvasive brain method has received much attention. The present study was conducted to report research results of athletes’ ...
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Many techniques have been invented to enhance sport performance which nowadays are used by athletes in different sport fields. Among these techniques, neurofeedback as a noninvasive brain method has received much attention. The present study was conducted to report research results of athletes’ discrete skills by convenience sampling method. English articles were searched by keywords like “neurofeedback”, “EEG neurofedback”, “sport performance”, “athletic performance”, “shooting performance”, “archery”, “putting performance” and “golf” to collect data. The articles were collected from PsycINFO, PubMed, web of science, EBSCO and Google Scholar databases from 1990 to 2018. Persian articles were searched with same keywords in SID, Noormags, Magiran and Irandoc databases from 2001 to 2020. 16 articles had the inclusion criteria of the research and were selected. Then, the information of each article was extracted and reported in findings by an author using a specific checklist. Results showed that different recruited neurofeedback protocols in any study could affect the results of interventions and it is necessary to pay attention to this method in athletes. Based on these findings, neurofeedback training has positive effectiveness on enhancing sport performance in athletes.
Amir Dana; Zynalabedin Fallah; Jalil Moradi; Akbar Ghalavand
Abstract
Introduction and aims: Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) as one of the factors associated with neuromuscular performance and cognitive function is reduced with increasing age. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of aerobic and cognitive training on the dynamic balance, ...
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Introduction and aims: Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) as one of the factors associated with neuromuscular performance and cognitive function is reduced with increasing age. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of aerobic and cognitive training on the dynamic balance, attention and serum BDNF levels in elderly men. Methods: In a quasi-experimental study, 60 healthy elderly men were selected through the purposeful sampling and were randomly divided into 4 groups including aerobic training, cognitive training, combinational training (cognitive aerobics) (cognitive training), and control. Training was performed during eight weeks at three sessions per week. T-test and one way ANOVA were used to analyze the data (P≤0.05). Results: at the end of the period, a significant increase was observed in BDNF serum in the intervention group compared to the control group (P ≥0.001). Also, there was a significant increase in the ratio of the correct response on the target and non-target stimuli. In addition, a significant decrease was observed in commission errors and omission errors, and reaction time in intervention groups compared to control groups (P<0.05). It can be added that the significant improvement was observed in dynamic balance in aerobic and combination groups compared to the control (P<0.001) and cognitive training (P<0.05). Conclusion: Cognitive and aerobic training lead to improving the attention and balance performance in the elderly with increasing BDNF, and it is better to use a combination of physical and cognitive training for the elderly.
Abolfazl Shayan; Fazlolah Bagherzadeh; Mehdi Shahbazi; Siroos Choobineh
Abstract
The vital role of exercise in many aspects of daily life and somewhat cognitivefunctions are acknowledged but a point that has recently gained researchers'attention is to investigate the effect of different types of exercises on cognitivefunctions and the mediating mechanisms of this effect. The aim ...
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The vital role of exercise in many aspects of daily life and somewhat cognitivefunctions are acknowledged but a point that has recently gained researchers'attention is to investigate the effect of different types of exercises on cognitivefunctions and the mediating mechanisms of this effect. The aim of this study was todetermine the effect of two types of endurance and resistance exercises on thelevels of attention and BDNF of sedentary students. Therefore, 46 sedentarystudents from University of Tehran (mean age 24.3+1.8 yr) were assigned to threegroups: endurance, resistance and control after the Stroop pretest. After bloodsamples had been collected, the subjects continued their exercise protocol for fiveweeks. Finally, at least 48 hours after the last session, the Stroop test wasperformed and blood samples were collected in order to eliminate the temporaryeffects of exercises. For data analysis, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, paired sample ttest, one–way ANOVA, MANOVA test, Dunnett's T3 post hoc test and Pearsoncorrelation coefficient test were used (P≤0.05). Results showed a significantimprovement in the response time of Stroop test in both endurance and resistancegroups while expression of BDNF significantly increased only in endurance group(P<0.05). The control group showed no improvement in any variables. In addition,there was no significant difference between the effect of two types of exercise onthe response time of the Stroop test and expression of BDNF (P>0.05). There wasno significant correlation between the variations of response time of the Stroop testand expression of BDNF (P>0.05). Finally, this research indicated that exercisecan improve cognitive functions, but there was no significant difference betweenendurance and resistance exercises in response to this question that which activitywas more useful.
Hanid Salehi; Ahmadreza Movahedi; Gholamali Ghasemi Kahriz Sangi; Adnan Ghazanfari
Volume 3, Issue 2 , October 2012, , Pages 45-64
Abstract
The aim of this investigation was to compare the level and the pattern of attention demands of a volleyball jumping serve using a probe reaction time (RT) technique. 14 junior elite volleyball players performed 60 jumping serves (JS) with their preferred hand. Jumping serve was performance as the primary ...
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The aim of this investigation was to compare the level and the pattern of attention demands of a volleyball jumping serve using a probe reaction time (RT) technique. 14 junior elite volleyball players performed 60 jumping serves (JS) with their preferred hand. Jumping serve was performance as the primary task and verbal RT that was administered in four probe positions (PP) as secondary task. Results indicated a non-linear attention pattern in the performance of jumping serve so that probe RT was highest in pre-shot in run up (PP1) and in landing (PP4) while it was lowest in pre-jump stepping ahead (PP2) and pre-striking (PP3). According to the results, attention level in failed serves was lower than successful ones while the attention pattern was similar. It was concluded that attention deficit might be one reason for failing serves.
Gholamhosein Nazemzadegan; Fazlollah Bagherzadeh; Rasoul Hemayattalab; Alireza Farsi
Volume 2, Issue 1 , April 2010, , Pages 133-149
Abstract
In this study, the effect of cognitive load (CL) training on duration and accuracy of bimanual coordination (BC) task was investigated. For this purpose, athletic male students of Shiraz University were randomly divided into 4 groups: G1 with low CL, G2 with intermediate CL, G3 with high CL and G4 control. ...
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In this study, the effect of cognitive load (CL) training on duration and accuracy of bimanual coordination (BC) task was investigated. For this purpose, athletic male students of Shiraz University were randomly divided into 4 groups: G1 with low CL, G2 with intermediate CL, G3 with high CL and G4 control. The subjects practiced for 6 weeks, 3 sessions a week, 6 blocks, 12 trials. The subjects performed bimanual coordination task by Vienna test system (v=71%-84% and r=85%-96%). Independent T test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. The results showed that high CL affected the accuracy of bimanual coordination task. No significant difference was observed between CL groups and control group in overall duration (?=0.05). It can be concluded that if there is high CL in activities which require much attention, attention capacity may change and in skills that need attention, the task can be improved after information processing as a result of capacity change.