The difference in attentional focus during exercise affects attention resources.
Rei Odagiri, Hideki Yoshida, Akiyoshi Takami
PMID 34873368WHAT IT FOUND
Healthy adults told to focus on a target or on their hand showed no clear difference in brain blood flow during a tennis ball task.
The external focus group also tended to score higher, but the study did not show it.
Key findings
01The external focus group had higher prefrontal blood-flow changes than the internal focus group, but the difference was not statistically significant.
02The external focus group had higher tennis-ball accuracy scores than the internal focus group, but the difference was not statistically significant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only 20 healthy adults took part, so the study cannot show what happens in patients or in everyday rehabilitation. No statistically significant differences were found, so the higher scores and blood-flow values may reflect chance. The researchers could not confirm participants were following the focus instructions. The device measured only oxygenated hemoglobin in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, so other brain areas were missed. No movement analysis was done, so the study did not test why accuracy scores differed.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that external focus improves accuracy or reduces attention demand. The external focus group had higher scores and blood-flow values, but neither difference was statistically significant, and the study included only 20 healthy adults.