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In this study, we aimed to determine the difference of motor reaction time and accuracy between the patients with moderate multiple sclerosis (MS) and healthy subjects and to determine whether a specified cognitive-motor training can improve the speed and accuracy of information processing in patients with MS. A total of 205 patients (30% males) and 276 age-/gender-matched healthy subjects (31% males) were included in the study. Furthermore, using a stratified randomization method, patients with MS were randomly assigned to one of two groups: active information processing training (AIPT) (n = 49) or post-control (n = 55). The AIPT group was asked to complete a computerized visual-manual training program and the post-control group asked to complete the same task without an increase in difficulty. Before and after the intervention phase, the simple, choice, and semantic reaction times and accuracies of all participants were evaluated using the VLS measurement battery. Our results demonstrated that the case and control group were significantly different in terms of the simple, choice, and semantic motor reaction times and accuracies. Compared with the pre-intervention phase, the AIPT and control group’s performances in the post-intervention phase were considerably improved in simple, choice, and semantic motor reaction times and choice and semantic motor reaction accuracies. The results also showed that the AIPT group performed significantly better than the post-control group in terms of simple and choice motor reaction times. We showed the positive effects of training on the performance of patients with MS in motor reaction time and accuracy. &nbsp

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of visual manipulation during walking training on functional balance and selected kinematic parameters of gait in the elderly. 16 accessible older women ranging in age from 65 to 75 were recruited and randomly assigned to a experimental (n: 8) and control (n: 8) groups. Experimental group trained walking while lower visual field was blocked for 12 weeks, 3 training sessions per week. Berg functional balance test was used for measuring subjects’ functional balance and Zebris gait analyzer was used for measuring kinematic gait parameters. We used the paired samples t test to compare the mean test scores before (pre-test) and after (post-test) intervention in each group. Independent t test was also used to evaluate the differences in means between experimental and control groups. A p-value of 0.05 was considered for all statistical methods. Results showed a significant effect of walking training while lower visual field was blocked on stride length, gait velocity, percentage variability of velocity for experimental group (P0.05). Within group analysis showed that there were no significant differences between pretest and post test mean scores of measured gait parameters in control group (P>0.05). Between group analysis showed that there were significant differences between posttest mean scores in two groups in stride length, gait velocity (P

Background: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the association of autonomy-based teaching style in physical education with intrinsic motivation, social anxiety, and tendency to perform physical activities among primary school children. Methods: The present study used a descriptive-correlational design with 384 children (192 boys; mean age of 10.01 years) from the regular primary schools of Tehran, 2019. Data was collected by the use of standard questionnaires. Pearson correlation test and regression analysis were used to examine the associations between variables and independent t-test was used to analyze gender differences. Results: The boys had higher scores than the girls in perceived autonomy support, intrinsic motivation, and intention to physically perform activities. However, the girls felt higher social anxiety than boys. The results showed that perceived autonomy support had a positive association with intrinsic motivation (P=0.000), which subsequently was associated with intention to do physical activity in the physical education class (P=0.000). Moreover, the boys reported higher perceived autonomy support (P=0.000), more intrinsic motivation (P=0.000) and intention to do physical activities (P=0.000) than girls, however, girls reported higher levels of social anxiety in physical education class (P=0.000). Finally, social anxiety was inversely associated with intention to do physical activity (P=0.049). Conclusions: These findings show that physical education teachers should encourage the perceptions of the students about their control in the physical education class, so that the students experience more autonomy.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a fun virtual purposeful active play program on children's physical fitness during home quarantine due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Twenty children 5-6 Yrs. old were selected to participate in the study based on a call posted in different social networks. Subjects were divided into two groups of 10 experimental and control. Modified physical fitness tests were used in the pre- and post-tests, which were performed in person but in accordance with health protocols. The training program was designed based on the three indicators including physical fitness elements and fundamental movement skills and enjoyment. The experimental group trained eight weeks online sessions (two 60-minute sessions per week) using the Zoom program. Analysis of Covariance method was used to detect differences between groups in the post-test by controlling pre-test scores. The results showed that the training program had a significant effect on improving the mean scores of flexibility, muscle endurance and hand strength of the experimental group (P0.05). Conclusion is purposeful active play program can have a positive effect on most elements of physical fitness in children during long periods of sedentary lifestyle.

Introduction: Children's motor skills are inversely related to sedentary screen time. Public lockdown during COVID-19 has caused a further increase ın screen time. The current research aims at investigating the impact of Stickygym games on motor development of children. Materials and Methods: 28 eligible subjects (4-6 years old) were chosen and randomly grouped into control group (n=13) and experimental group (n=15). Using TGMD-2 test, gross motor development was measured. The experimental group performed online Stickygym games for 8 weeks. Stickygym kit includes Hook & Loop strips, with two linear polyester strips that are easily but firmly attached together. Trained instructors performed online training sessions. In the end, TGMD-2 test was conducted again in person. Data analysis was done using Shapiro-Wilk, Levene and the analysis of covariance tests were with the significance level of 0.05 in SPSS 24. Results: some locomotion skills were significantly improved by Stickygym games: bound (p =0.005), galloping (p =0.012), and running (p =0.003), as well as object control skills: overhand throw (p =0.004), underhand roll (p =0.01), and striking a stationary ball (p=0.021). Conclusion: This play kit can be utilized by pre-school educators and parents for improving object control and locomotion skills in preschool children.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of cognitive loading and sensory manipulations (visual and somatosensory senses) on postural control of wrestlers with different skill levels. Four groups of 10 accessible subjects (25-18 years old) from skilled wrestlers, semi-skilled wrestlers, beginners and control group (non-athlete) were recruited for the study. The subjects performed eight balance tasks on the Biodex Balance System in the manipulated conditions of visual and somatosensory senses and cognitive system, and tasks resulting from the combination of these manipulations. The research design was a combination of two factors in the form of 8 (tasks) × 4 (group) and the statistical method used was intergroup analysis of variance with repeated measures. The results showed that the main effect of conditions, group and also interactive effect were significant (P0.05)., but there was a significant between groups in the four balance tasks of a) somatosensory, b) somatosensory – cognitive, c) somatosensory –visual, d) somatosensory –visual-cognitive in favor of skilled and semi - skilled wrestlers (P

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 12 weeks walking training on cobblestone mats on spatio-temporal parameters for the elderly women. Twenty community-dwelling elderly women, aged 65-80, eligible to participate in the study, were randomly allocated to an experimental group (n=10) or a control group (n=10). Experimental group trained walking on artificial cobblestone-mats for 12 weeks, 3 sessions per week. Zebris Gait Analyzing System was used for measuring Balance indices during gait in pre and posttests. Mixed ANOVA test revealed a significant effect of time-group interaction (P0.05).Between group analysis showed that there were significant differences between posttest mean scores in two groups in cadence, stride length, gait velocity and variability of velocity (P

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between sport participation motivation and the TGfU approach among novice handball players.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 8 weeks visual and sport skills training on selected visual skills and sport skills among novice table tennis and basketball players. 60 novice male athletes were randomly divided into 6 groups: (1- visual training and basketball layup, 2- visual training and table tennis forehand derive, 3- basketball layup, 4- table tennis forehand derive, 5- visual training and 6- control). Based on their training, Revien and Gabor (1981) visual training and sport skill drills were used. Before and after 8 weeks training, we used 6 visual skill tests and sport training tests. Data analysis done by t test and multiple ANOVA shown that all of the experimental groups had enhancement in their visual skills and sport skills based on their training. Visual and table tennis group had better performance in comparison with visual and basketball group. It seems that the combination of visual and sport skills training is better than exclusive sport and visual training. Also the nature of sport skills and their visual demands can affect the visual training programming.

Background: This research aims to study the effect of neurofeedback training on the working memory and perceptual-motor development of athlete boys. Methods: Thirty athlete boy students of Gorgan province were selected by convenient sampling and participated in the research process. First, a pretest was conducted. All participants had done Wechsler digit span test and Lincoln-Oseretsky perceptual-motor capabilities test. After that, participants were randomly divided into test and control groups. Subjects of the experiment group had 12 one-hour sessions neurofeedback training while the control group subjects received no intervention during this time. Data were analyzed by using multivariate covariance test (MANCOVA) by SPSS 18. Results: The results of data analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between mean direct and reverse digit span numbers and perceptual-motor development of the experiment group before and after treatment (P

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of force control and adjustment of dominant hand’s angle to selected psychological traits in athlete and non-athlete students. 120 participants including 99 male and 21 female athlete students (19-29 years old) from different sports and 120 non-athlete students from Tehran university (20 girls, 100 boys) attended in the study. Digital handgrip device and angle joint measurement device were used respectively to assess force reproduction and joint reposition. Profile of Mood States Questionnaire was used to measure mood states and to measure emotional intelligence we used Schutte’s emotional intelligence scale. To evaluate relationship between variables Pearson's correlation coefficient was used. The Z-Fisher was used for investing difference between correlation coefficients. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between POMS’s scores with force control and adjustment of dominant hand’s angle errors in both groups, although the relationship was stronger in nonathletic subjects. The findings indicated that negative mood states can lead to kinesthesis sense errors, but that is less effective in athletes. On the other hand, that there was not significant relationship between EQ’s scores with force control and adjustment of dominant hand’s angle errors in both groups, i.e. kinesthesis sense cannot be affected by cognitive control of emotion and longtime sport participation does not affect on their relationship.

The aim of present study was to investigate the effect of training visual and two different table tennis skills programs on some visual skills in male students. All of the participants completed the optometric screening tests and then were randomly assigned into four groups: 1: visual training &high toss service; 2: visual training & forehand drive; 3: visual training; 4: service & drive training. Before and after eight weeks subjects participated in some standard optometric tests. Mixed ANOVA 4 (group) * 2 (time) indicated that saccadic eye movements in the groups 1 & 2; facility of accommodation in the groups 2 & 3; visual reaction time in the groups 1, 2 & 3 and eye-hand coordination in the group 1 had more improvements after eight weeks (P

The purpose of this study was to analyze the content of papers in scientific journals of motor behavior and sport psychology in Iran from 2009 to 2017. The present study was an applied research and content analysis method. In this study, a total of 814 papers have been reviewed in six different journals.For this purpose, content analysis was done quantitatively and in terms of subject matter dispersion. After referring to archived published journals and the entry of some raw data in the coding sheet, descriptive statistics were calculated using SPSS software and frequency distribution tables were created. The results showed that the Journal of Motor Behavior with the highest number 28% and the Journal of Sport Management Research and Motor Behavior 5.7% had the lowest number of papers. It was observed Sports Psychology Studies Journal had the shortest review processes3.50±2.227 months). The authors of the papers were mostly men 70.9% in PhD degree 11.8% with assistant professor position 20.5%, and motor behavior field 71.4%. We also found that most of the papers have been published in sport psychology domain and motor learning domain was in the second position. Less attention has been paid in paper publications to the motor and control development domains. Meanwhile, topic of emotion 13.3% was the most respected by researchers to study. In the reviewed papers, most of subjects were non-athlete and in terms of skill level they were beginner and only 7.2% were elite. Most of papers were about "health". The major statistical samples of the papers were human, young and healthy subjects, and only 12.5% of the subjects had disabilities. The results showed that English language references were used more than Persian sources in the papers. The highest self-citations of the journal were in the Journal of Motor Learning and development -Sport (124 self-citations) and the most self-citation of the author was related to the Journal of Motor Behavior (146 self-citations). Most researches were practical and used semi-experimental research method. It was also found that Tehran University (477 cases) has the largest share of papers among participating academic institutions. little attention has been paid to community of the elderly and the disables, as well as the imbalance of studies conducted in various areas of motor behavior, the identification of research priorities based on the need-assessment in various journals and informing researchers can be a step towards the elimination of scientific and research deficiencies. The lack of qualitative research, the lack of interdisciplinary studies, the low share of associate and full professors in paper publication, the low tendency for research work on motor control and development domains and low focus on children and the elderly as a research sample are some important weaknesses and limitations in reviewed papers.

The purpose of present investigation was to assess the effect of three warm up programs on simple and choice reaction time. 32 nonathlete girl students (19-23 yr) of Tehran university were selected and randomly assigned to four groups: static, dynamic stretch, compound (slow runing, stretch and dynamic movement). All groups performed a simple and choice reaction time test with SW8 instrument before and after of performing warm up protocols. The results of analysis showed that there is no significant difference between prestest and posttest scores means in SRTof groups. But there is a significant difference between pretest and posttest scores means in CRT of dynamic stretch and compound groups ( p < 0/05) and there is no significant difference between pretest and posttest scores means in CRT of static stretch group. In addition, there is a significant difference (p < 0/05) between all groups in CRT (post test) The results of present study showed that warm up may improve CRT,meanwhile compound wann up program is more effective than two other, but totally warms up does not affect on SRT.

Background & Objective: Fundamental motor skills are basic skills necessary for movement competence and considered the basic building blocks for more complex motor skill development. However, autistic children have significant delays in fundamental motor skills. Additionally, motor impairments in autistic children can have a negative impact on other developmental aspects of them like social communication and social interaction skills in this population. With regard to the marked differences in developmental aspects between children with autism spectrum disorder and normal children, it is recommended to develop interventions or games requiring whole body exercises for children with autism spectrum disorder to improve their gross motor growth. Rainbow parachute is one of the most popular active play toy used recently in kindergartens and playhouses to carry out various types of active play programs. It seems that this toy has the indices needed to design the motor games of children with autism spectrum disorder. It seems that this toy instrument has the indices needed to develop active games for children with autism spectrum disorder. The present study aimed to determine the effect of selected Rainbow parachute games on motor development of autistic children. The parachute is a multicolored, nylon sheet used by arranging children on the outside. That is commonly used in kindergarten and elementary school physical education classes. The aim of this study was to survey the effect of selected rainbow parachute games on motor development of autism spectrum disorder children. Methods: This study was quasi–experiment. 20 autistic children (4 to 6 years old) from two rehabilitation centers of Tehran city (capital city of Iran), based on their pre–test scores randomly were selected and divided into two groups, control (n=10) and experimental (n=10). Test of gross motor development–2 Ulrich (TGMD–2) was used to assess the motor development. TGMD–2 is one of the reliable tools for evaluating development of gross motor skills; that was provided by Ulrich (1985) in the United States of America for the first time and reported its stability and justifiability for 3–10 years old American children. The test reliability was 96% and the stability was 87%. The test included six displacement skills (running, trotting, hopping, skipping, jumping, sliding) and six object control skills (striking a stationary ball, stationary dribble, catch, kick, overhand throw and underhand roll). Running pretest, the experimental group played selected parachute games for 8 weeks (2 sessions per week each 45 min.). Each session started at 10 a.m. and was divided into 3 sections: (a) warm–up activities: 10 min.; (b) selected parachute games: 25–min; (c) cool down activities: 10 min. The main focus of the program was on developing fundamental motor skills but developing physical fitness by modifying the intensity, duration and complexity of the activities was also considered. The program was developed based on rough–and–tumble play, running around, and other physical play that provides whole–body exercise and helps the child develop gross motor skills. During games, all experimental children had the experience of interacting with other each other and objects in their surroundings. One head coach managed sessions and three qualified trained assistants. At the end of the play program, pretests were re–performed in both experimental and control groups. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance, Shapiro–Wilk test and Levin tests by statistical package of SPSS (version 17) at a significance level of 0.05. Results: The results showed that selected parachute games significantly affected running (p=0.011), skipping (p=0.042), hopping (p=0.033) and jumping (p=0.026) skills from the displacement scale and striking (p=0.033), throwing (p=0.032) and rolling (p=0.044) from object control scale. In addition, results showed that the intervention did not have significant effect on remained subscales of displacement and object control scales. Conclusion: The results revealed that the selected rainbow parachute games, which have been developed according to fundamental motor skills, could improve some subscales of displacement and object control scales in children with autism spectrum disorder. Therefore, it seems that engaging in physical activity programs by rainbow parachute games resulted in greater sensory integrity and more environmental information, which may increase brain activity and improve bilateral coordination in children with autism spectrum disorder. Exercise may improve motor skill in individuals with autism by strengthening whole muscle, enhancing motivation through improvement in self–esteem, and using cognitive techniques to sharpen the child ability in a new task. We encourage mentors to use rainbow parachute games to improve motor development of children with autism spectrum disorder.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of I goal setting on choice reaction time (CRT). 50 male athlete students (19-23 yr.) from physical education Faculty of Tehran university were selected. 10 subjects were selected by simple random sampling method from 50 subjects as a base group (who did not participate in the main study). Then base group were tested on a CRT test and their scores mean recorded as base record. Other 40 subjects were tested on a choice reaction time test too and assigned to 4 conditions (personal, easy and difficult goal group and control group) by random assignment method. The difficult and easy goal was set far and close to base record and personal goal was set by subjects themselves. After 4 practice sessions groups were tested CRT test. Data analysis indicate significant difference between pre and post test means of groups (p

Purpose: The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of participating in a course of recreational sport activity on the self-efficacy and resilience of the physical education teachers. Methodology: This study was conducted with a quasi-experimental design. The statistical population of the present study included all the female physical education teachers in Tehran Province (Iran) who were not involved in the recreational sports activities. According to the empirical research, 40 individuals in the control and experimental groups (20 individuals per each study group) were selected as the sample of the study. Baek Habitual Physical Activity Questionnaire (BHPAQ), Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (developed by Neff et al., (2013)), and Resilience Questionnaire (developed by Lutens et al., (2007)) were used for data collection. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that participating in a course of recreational sport activity had a significant effect on the self-efficacy and resilience of the physical education teachers p < 0/05. Conclusion: It can be concluded that paying attention to recreational sports activities and promoting these activities in teachers' extracurricular programs can increase the self-efficacy and resilience of the physical education teachers.

Vestibular sensory system is one of the main sensory systems contributing motor movements especially balance control which lead to appropriate body position in different situations. The aim of this study was to design, construct and test reliability of a vestibular measurement system. After constructing of the device, 20 male non-athlete students participated voluntarily in the study. An examiner measured vestibular sense system function in 20 subjects for 10 times to evaluate the intra-experimenter reliability. For evaluating inter experimenter reliability 4 examiners were taught how to measure with the device and they measured 4 times. To evaluate the stability of device reliability, at different interval times the examiner measured 8 subjects at two days alternatively during morning and evening. All tests were performed in both sagittal (moving forward and backward) and frontal (moving laterally) planes. Correlation coefficient was used to measure to measure inter and intra experimenter reliabilities. The results showed that intra experimenter correlation coefficient for sagittal plane was 0.95 and for frontal plane was 0.93. Inter experimenter correlation coefficient score for sagittal plane was 0.89 and for frontal plane 0.85. Reliability of time consistency of the device between morning and evening measurements for sagittal and frontal planes were 0.85 and 0.89 respectively. The results indicated that high correlation coefficient values in inter and intra experimenter reliability in sagittal and frontal planes. So the device can be used for measuring vestibular sense system function in these planes.