Abstract
This study represents the first attempt in exploring whether attentional focus instructions could affect real-time reinvestment (conscious movement processing) in older adults during level-ground walking. Forty-five community-dwelling older adults were instructed to walk at a self-selected pace along a 6-m level-ground walkway under three randomized attentional focus conditions (i.e., Internal, External, and Control) for a total of fifteen trials (five trials for each condition). Electroencephalography (EEG) T3-Fz coherence was utilized as an objective measurement of real-time reinvestment during walking. The Chinese version of the Movement-Specific Reinvestment Scale (MSRS-C) was used to measure the trait reinvestment propensity. Results revealed that the EEG T3-Fz coherence did not differ among the three conditions. The EEG T3-Fz coherence at the Control condition was not correlated with the scores of the MSRS-C. Our findings suggest that the measurement of trait reinvestment propensity (MSRS-C) may not be sensitive enough to reflect real-time reinvestment. Moreover, attentional focus instructions do not affect real-time reinvestment during level-ground walking, possibly due to the low level of motor task difficulty in level-ground walking for healthy older adults. Future studies should investigate this influential issue with a more challenging walking task.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Miss Connie Chen and Mr. Chester Lui for their support in this study. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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This work was supported by the General Research Fund from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China [grant number 17603318].
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Mak, T.C.T., Wong, T.W.L. Do attentional focus instructions affect real-time reinvestment during level-ground walking in older adults?. Cogn Process 23, 121–128 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-021-01044-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-021-01044-3