title: The Effect of Different Attentional Focus Instructions during Finger Movement Tasks in Healthy Subjects: An Exploratory Study.
abstract: External focus of attention (EFA) and internal focus of attention (IFA) represent commonly used strategies to instruct subjects during exercise. Several studies showed EFA to be more effective than IFA to improve motor performance and learning. To date the role of these strategies on motor performance during finger movement was less studied. The objective of the study was to investigate motor performance, patient's preference induced by IFA and EFA, and the focus during control condition. Ten healthy right-handed participants performed a finger movement task in control, EFA, and IFA conditions (counterbalanced). Errors, patient's preference, and type of attentional focus spontaneously adopted during the control condition were recorded. EFA determined less error (p< 0.01) compared to control and IFA. Participants preferred EFA against IFA and control condition. In the control group 10% of subjects adopted a purely EFA, 70% of subjects adopted a purely IFA, and 20% of subjects adopted a mixture of the two foci. Our results confirm that EFA is more effective than IFA and control in finger movement task. Due its clinical relevance, the interaction between attention and finger movement should be further investigated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genova, Campus of Savona, Via Magliotto 2, 17100 Savona, Italy.
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rossettini
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genova, Campus of Savona, Via Magliotto 2, 17100 Savona, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8643-7200
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Testa
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Hospital "Villa Santa Chiara", Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vicentini
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neurology Unit, Department of Medical Science, Surgery and Health, University of Trieste, Via Farneto 3, 34142 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Manganotti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*