Fractionated Reaction Time in Women as a Function of Age and Physical Activity Level
Comparisons between young and older women runners and sedentary controls were examined on simple and choice reaction time tasks involving elbow flexion and extension. Reaction time was fractionated into premotor and contractile components using electromyography. Young runners were significantly faster and the older controls were significantly slower than all other groups on all reaction time tasks. The older runners were not significantly different from the young controls in any of the reaction time tasks, thus indicating that a history of running may eliminate or retard the slowing of reaction time that normally accompanies aging. All four groups had similar contractile times, indicating that the differences in reaction time were attributed to central processing in the premotor component of reaction time.