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Does Attentional Focus Influence Psychophysiological Responses to an Acute Bout of Exercise? Evidence From an Experimental Study Using a Repeated-Measures Design

Attentional focus during aerobic exercise has been studied in the context of sports performance, injury prevention and affective experience. Previous research suggests that an additional mental task parallel to the physical activity might influence exercise experience and performance. It has been te...

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Autores principales: Meixner, Friedrich, Herbert, Cornelia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8267581/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34248667
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.680149
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author Meixner, Friedrich
Herbert, Cornelia
author_facet Meixner, Friedrich
Herbert, Cornelia
author_sort Meixner, Friedrich
collection PubMed
description Attentional focus during aerobic exercise has been studied in the context of sports performance, injury prevention and affective experience. Previous research suggests that an additional mental task parallel to the physical activity might influence exercise experience and performance. It has been tested if attentional focus influences cardiovascular activity, positive/negative affect, and subjective exertion during a cycling exercise. Data from N = 30 female participants has been collected using a repeated measures design, with the following experimental manipulations: (A) an internal attention focus (i.e., paying attention to force production of the quadriceps muscles), (B) an external attention focus (i.e., paying attention to changes in brightness in the cycling track simulation), and as control conditions, (C) exercise without attention focus (i.e., no specific instruction was given) and (D) no exercise, no attention focus. Subjective affect and subjective exertion were assessed, and changes in cardiovascular activity were recorded via mobile impedance cardiography (ICG) at rest, during and after the exercise, including HR, HRV (RMSSD, HF), PEP, CO, SV, LVET, and RSA. Exercise was associated with adaptations in cardiovascular activity, positive/negative affect, and subjective exertion. However, this did not interact with attentional focus. The original hypothesis could not be supported: instructed attentional focus does not influence affect, exertion, or cardiovascular activity during a cycling exercise. Therefore, attentional focusing during exercise does not appear to put notable additional mental demands on the physically active participant. Nonetheless, impedance cardiography delivered reliable measurements even during the cycling exercise.
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spelling pubmed-82675812021-07-10 Does Attentional Focus Influence Psychophysiological Responses to an Acute Bout of Exercise? Evidence From an Experimental Study Using a Repeated-Measures Design Meixner, Friedrich Herbert, Cornelia Front Physiol Physiology Attentional focus during aerobic exercise has been studied in the context of sports performance, injury prevention and affective experience. Previous research suggests that an additional mental task parallel to the physical activity might influence exercise experience and performance. It has been tested if attentional focus influences cardiovascular activity, positive/negative affect, and subjective exertion during a cycling exercise. Data from N = 30 female participants has been collected using a repeated measures design, with the following experimental manipulations: (A) an internal attention focus (i.e., paying attention to force production of the quadriceps muscles), (B) an external attention focus (i.e., paying attention to changes in brightness in the cycling track simulation), and as control conditions, (C) exercise without attention focus (i.e., no specific instruction was given) and (D) no exercise, no attention focus. Subjective affect and subjective exertion were assessed, and changes in cardiovascular activity were recorded via mobile impedance cardiography (ICG) at rest, during and after the exercise, including HR, HRV (RMSSD, HF), PEP, CO, SV, LVET, and RSA. Exercise was associated with adaptations in cardiovascular activity, positive/negative affect, and subjective exertion. However, this did not interact with attentional focus. The original hypothesis could not be supported: instructed attentional focus does not influence affect, exertion, or cardiovascular activity during a cycling exercise. Therefore, attentional focusing during exercise does not appear to put notable additional mental demands on the physically active participant. Nonetheless, impedance cardiography delivered reliable measurements even during the cycling exercise. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-06-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8267581/ /pubmed/34248667 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.680149 Text en Copyright © 2021 Meixner and Herbert. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Physiology
Meixner, Friedrich
Herbert, Cornelia
Does Attentional Focus Influence Psychophysiological Responses to an Acute Bout of Exercise? Evidence From an Experimental Study Using a Repeated-Measures Design
title Does Attentional Focus Influence Psychophysiological Responses to an Acute Bout of Exercise? Evidence From an Experimental Study Using a Repeated-Measures Design
title_full Does Attentional Focus Influence Psychophysiological Responses to an Acute Bout of Exercise? Evidence From an Experimental Study Using a Repeated-Measures Design
title_fullStr Does Attentional Focus Influence Psychophysiological Responses to an Acute Bout of Exercise? Evidence From an Experimental Study Using a Repeated-Measures Design
title_full_unstemmed Does Attentional Focus Influence Psychophysiological Responses to an Acute Bout of Exercise? Evidence From an Experimental Study Using a Repeated-Measures Design
title_short Does Attentional Focus Influence Psychophysiological Responses to an Acute Bout of Exercise? Evidence From an Experimental Study Using a Repeated-Measures Design
title_sort does attentional focus influence psychophysiological responses to an acute bout of exercise? evidence from an experimental study using a repeated-measures design
topic Physiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8267581/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34248667
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.680149
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