Attentional Focusing Instructions Influence Force Production and Muscular Activity During Isokinetic Elbow Flexions

Marchant, David; Greig, Matt; Scott, Catherine

doi:10.1519/jsc.0b013e3181b8d1e5

Cited by 184 publications

(165 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The increase of muscle thickness supports the use of verbal instructions to improve muscle performance, which is consistent with previous verbal instruction studies. 5,[10][11][12][13] The increase of muscle thickness changes during isometric muscle contraction is consistent with the findings in previous studies; however, the amount of the increase varies among the studies. study on thickness change of the lumbar multifidus muscle, our asymptomatic group had a smaller increase during lumbar multifidus contraction than that found in Kiesel et al's, 21 in which percent increases of 13% on average were reported at L4-5.…”

Section: 28supporting

confidence: 90%

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Effects of different verbal instructions on change of lumbar multifidus muscle thickness in asymptomatic adults and in patients with low back pain

Wang-Price

Zafereo

Brizzolara

et al. 2016

Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy

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Spinal stabilisation exercise has been shown to be effective in the rehabilitation of low back pain (LBP). Due to the isometric nature of spinal stabilisation exercise, manual therapists use various verbal instructions to elicit lumbar multifidus muscle contraction.The purpose of this study was to assess whether or not three verbal instructions would alter muscle thickness of the lumbar multifidus muscle differently in asymptomatic individuals and patients with LBP.Three verbal instructions were selected for this study: (1) swell the muscle underneath the transducer, (2) draw your belly button in towards your spinal column and (3) think about tilting your pelvis but without really doing it. Lumbar multifidus muscle thickness was determined using parasagittal ultrasound (US) imaging. Measurements of muscle thickness were collected at rest and during verbal instructions from 21 asymptomatic adults and 21 patients with LBP. Percent changes of muscle thickness during contraction and at rest were compared between groups and across verbal instructions.ANOVA results showed no significant interaction for both L4-5 and L5-S1, but a significant main effect of verbal instruction (P 5 0.049) at L4-5.Post hoc analysis showed a greater increase with verbal instruction #3 than verbal instruction #2 (P 5 0.009). There was no significant main effect of group at either segment.The results of the study suggest that both groups responded similarly to the three verbal instructions. Verbal instructions may increase lumbar multifidus muscle thickness by different amounts at L4-5, but by the same amount at L5-S1.

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Section: 28supporting

confidence: 90%

“…Appropriate instructions could change muscle activity and improve the accuracy of exercise performance. [10][11][12] One electromyographic (EMG) study…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of different verbal instructions on change of lumbar multifidus muscle thickness in asymptomatic adults and in patients with low back pain

Wang-Price

Zafereo

Brizzolara

et al. 2016

Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy

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“…Studies have demonstrated greater maximum force production with an external relative to an internal focus or control conditions, including tasks involving isokinetic contractions (Marchant, Greig, & Scott, 2009), maximum vertical jump height (Wulf & Dufek, 2009;Wulf, Zachry, Granados, & Dufek, 2007;Wulf, Dufek, Lozano, & Pettigrew, 2010), standing long-jump (Porter, Anton, & Wu, 2012;Porter, Ostrowski, Nolan, & Wu, 2010;Wu, Porter, & Brown, 2012), or discus throwing (Zarghami, Saemi, & Fathi, 2012) (for a review, see Marchant, 2011). Interestingly, the production of greater maximal forces with an external focus also has been found to be associated with reduced muscular activity (Marchant et al, 2009b;Wulf & Dufek, 2009;Wulf, Dufek, Lozano, & Pettigrew, 2010).…”

Section: Maximum Force Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning

2016

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Effective motor performance is important for surviving and thriving, and skilled movement is critical in many activities. Much theorizing over the past few decades has focused on how certain practice conditions affect the processing of task-related information to affect learning. Yet, existing theoretical perspectives do not accommodate significant recent lines of evidence demonstrating motivational and attentional effects on performance and learning. These include research on (a) conditions that enhance expectancies for future performance, (b) variables that influence learners' autonomy, and (c) an external focus of attention on the intended movement effect. We propose the OPTIMAL (Optimizing Performance through Intrinsic Motivation and Attention for Learning) theory of motor learning. We suggest that motivational and attentional factors contribute to performance and learning by strengthening the coupling of goals to actions. We provide explanations for the performance and learning advantages of these variables on psychological and neuroscientific grounds. We describe a plausible mechanism for expectancy effects rooted in responses of dopamine to the anticipation of positive experience and temporally associated with skill practice. Learner autonomy acts perhaps largely through an enhanced expectancy pathway. Furthermore, we consider the influence of an external focus for the establishment of efficient functional connections across brain networks that subserve skilled movement. We speculate that enhanced expectancies and an external focus propel performers' cognitive and motor systems in productive "forward" directions and prevent "backsliding" into self-and non-task focused states. Expected success presumably breeds further success and helps consolidate memories. We discuss practical implications and future research directions.Keywords Motivation . Attentional focus . Self-efficacy . Positive affect . Dopamine . Motor performance Skilled movement is fundamental to surviving and thriving in the world and the basis as well for many of the highest human endeavors and cultural achievements, from sport to art to music. How people learn and relearn movement skills has been addressed from a number of disparate scientific perspectives and levels of analysis, including behavioral, social cognitive, neurophysiological, and neurocomputational. In part, differences in assumptions, scientific terminology and philosophy, as well as methodological approaches have made scholarly rapprochement challenging, but we see the end goal of optimizing motor learning as important. We suggest that it may be valuable to bring recent insights from various approaches together to identify a coherent way forward that can result in optimized learning from humans' earliest encounters with new motor skills to the lifelong development of motoric expertise.It is typically considered time to look afresh at dominant theories in a field when the accumulating evidence suggests that old frameworks cannot account for substantial new insights an...

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“…As a second main outcome, electromyography (EMG) activity was analysed for each condition. Previous studies have shown that -despite enhanced motor performance when using an EFmuscular activity was lower with EF than with IF (Marchant, Greig, & Scott, 2009;Vance, Wulf, Tollner, McNevin, & Mercer, 2004;Wulf et al, 2010). It was therefore hypothesised that a higher level of muscular activity would be found in the IF condition compared to the EF condition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Enhanced jump performance when providing augmented feedback compared to an external or internal focus of attention

Keller

Lauber

Gottschalk

et al. 2014

Journal of Sports Sciences

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Factors such as an external focus of attention (EF) and augmented feedback (AF) have been shown to improve performance. However, the efficacy of providing AF to enhance motor performance has never been compared with the effects of an EF or an internal focus of attention (IF). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to identify which of the three conditions (AF, EF or IF) leads to the highest performance in a countermovement jump (CMJ). Nineteen volunteers performed 12 series of 8 maximum CMJs. Changes in jump height between conditions and within the series were analysed. Jump heights differed between conditions (P < 0.001), resulting in best performance with AF (32.04 ± 7.11 cm), followed by EF (31.21 ± 6.67 cm) and IF (30.77 ± 6.87 cm). Significantly different (P < 0.001) within-series effects of higher jump heights at the end of the series in AF (+1.60%) and lower jump heights at the end of the series in EF (−1.79%) and IF (−1.68%) were observed. Muscle activity did not differ between conditions. The differences between conditions and within the series provide evidence that AF leads to higher performance and better progression within one series than EF and IF. Consequently, AF seems to outperform EF and IF when maximising jump height.

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Attentional Focusing Instructions Influence Force Production and Muscular Activity During Isokinetic Elbow Flexions

Cited by 184 publications

References 14 publications

Effects of different verbal instructions on change of lumbar multifidus muscle thickness in asymptomatic adults and in patients with low back pain

Effects of different verbal instructions on change of lumbar multifidus muscle thickness in asymptomatic adults and in patients with low back pain

Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning

Enhanced jump performance when providing augmented feedback compared to an external or internal focus of attention

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