Influência da manipulação do foco atencional nas funções executivas de mulheres idosas praticantes do método Pilates

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Executive functions (EFs) are the main cognitive abilities impaired with aging. Their decline often indicates impairment in the cognitive domains of inhibitory control (IC), working memory (WM) and cognitive flexibility (CF). It is a consensus that aerobic and resistance exercises improve cognition; however, cognitive outcomes in older populations trained with the Pilates Method (PM) are still scarce. Furthermore, most studies analyzing cognitive outcomes in interventions with the PM do not manipulate attentional focus through targeted instruction. OBJECTIVE: To verify the influence of manipulating attentional focus during 24 weeks of training with the PM on the EFs performance of older women. METHODS: This is a repeated measures clinical trial. Sixty-two older women from the Fluir Movimento extension project of the Federal University of Bahia were invited to participate in the study. The inclusion criteria were: women over sixty years old, able to perform physical exercises without medical supervision, literate and able to answer the study questionnaires. All project participants applied and agreed to participate in the study by signing the Informed Consent Form. After screening, thirty-seven participants met the requirements and were randomly allocated into two experimental groups: the internal attentional focus manipulation group (IGF) and the external attentional focus manipulation group (EGF). The instruments used to assess each domain of EFs and to assess global cognition were: the Stroop Word Color Task (SWCT) computerized test, the Corsi Block Test (CBT) computerized test, the Trail Making Test (TMT) manual trails test and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MocA) manual test. Cognitive parameters were measured in 3 collections and the physical exercise program was performed twice a week. The primary outcome variables were: mean response time in the incongruent and congruent conditions, and the Stroop effect of the SWCT; number of trials, simple score and composite score of the CBT; and mean execution time of the TMT. To analyze the relationship between the manipulation of attentional focus in each intervention group and the training time with the MP, inferential statistics of generalized linear mixed models were used. RESULTS: There was an improvement as a function of time for all variables of the IC domain (congruent: p=0.00; incongruent: p=0.00; and Stroop effect: p=0.04), for the simple scores (p=0.00) and composite score (p=0.02) of the cognitive domain of MT, and in global cognition (p=0.02). Furthermore, there was a group-time interaction in twelve weeks of intervention in the GFE for the incongruent condition of the IC (p=0.02; d=0.56), and in twenty-four weeks of intervention in the GFI (p=0.00; d=1.07). CONCLUSION: Chronic training with the MP alters the EFs of elderly women regardless of the manipulation of attentional focus by the instruction.