Effects of different focus of attention rehabilitative training on gait performance in Multiple Sclerosis patients

The present investigation studied the effects of different focus of attention training on gait performance. Twelve volunteers with Multiple Sclerosis and with an average disability score (Expanded Disability Status Scale=6.5) were selected from a Medical School and took part in a three-phase intervention including baseline, internal focus, and external focus, for eight weeks. In the baseline condition, the participants walked on a treadmill without any information. In the first (internal-focus) intervention they focused on foot performance and in the second (external-focus) intervention they focused on external markers and auditory information. The results of within-group analysis of variance showed that the external intervention was significantly (p<.05) better than the other conditions for stride length, step length, step speed, and gait energy expenditure, but not for force and stride timing (p>.05). In conclusion, the second (external-focus) intervention was found to be an appropriate perceptual training method and to result in improvements in some of the gait performance parameters.