scholarly journals Introduction of a Complex Reaction Time Tester Instrument

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Reginald Zana ◽  
Ambrus Zelei

The reaction time, which is also referred as reflex delay in the literature, is an important factor in human balancing, since reaction time highly affects the ability of self stabilization. Increased reaction time delay may cause dangerous fall-over accidents related to elderly people. Reaction time depends on age, health, everyday activities, the general and actual physical and mental state of the individual and the environmental conditions.The reaction time is considered as a parameter in many of the mathematical models of the neural processes in human balancing. It is beneficial in many cases to estimate the reaction time based on experimental data.The present paper introduces the prototype of a complex reaction time tester instrument. The novelty of the instrument is that the reaction time can be measured in various combinations of sensory organs and reaction movements. The reaction time is defined as the time duration in between the initial time instant of the stimulus of the sensory organs (input signal) and the onset of the response that is typically indicated by a button or a pedal. Another novelty is that the instrument is free of any uncertain time delay, which is not the case for several instruments available.Usually, human simple reaction time is considered to be roughly about 200 ms. The shortest (aural) reaction time for skilled athletes is 85ms. In our measurements the shortest reaction time was 97 ms, and the mean about 190 ms in simple reaction cases. So our collected experimental data are in agreement with the literature.

1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. PHILIP ◽  
J. TAILLARD ◽  
M. A. QUERA‐SALVA ◽  
B. BIOULAC ◽  
T. ÅKERSTEDT

Author(s):  
Csenge A. Molnar ◽  
Tamas Insperger

Abstract Human balancing on rolling balance board in the sagittal plane is analyzed such that the geometry of the balance board can be adjusted: the radius R of the wheels and the elevation h between the top of the wheels and the board can be changed. These two parameters have a significant influence on the stability of standing on the board as shown by preliminary experiments. The human body was modeled by a single inverted pendulum, while the balance board was considered by the geometry of the mechanical model. Based on literature, it was assumed that the central nervous system (CNS) controls by signals proportional to the angle and angular velocity of the human body and the balance board and is able to tune the feedback gains with 40% accuracy during the balancing process. To take the reaction time into consideration, operation of the CNS was modeled as a delayed proportional-derivative feedback. The critical time delay for the stabilization process is defined such that if the delay is larger than the critical one then no control gains could stabilize the system. Four balance board configurations were chosen with different wheel radius and the corresponding critical time delays were computed based on the mechanical model. Eight young healthy individuals participated in the experiments. Their task was to perform 60 s long balancing trials on each balance board. The reaction time of the participants was estimated by comparing the numerical results obtained for the critical time delay and their successful and unsuccessful balancing trials. The reaction times were found to be in the range of 0.10–0.15 s which are in good agreement with the literature.


Author(s):  
Jane Farrell

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact that music volume has on reaction time.  The significance of this study is that music volume is often suggested to be one of the factors and/or distractions that lead young drivers under the age of 25 to experience a high rate of vehicular accidents, and the goal of this study was to quantitatively assess the effect of increasing music volume on the reaction time of subjects in this demographic. Tactile reaction time, using the Brain Gauge, was used to record simple reaction time and choice reaction time data for 20 college students while the Neil Diamond classic “Sweet Caroline” was played at approximately 0dB, 20dB, 40dB, and 80dB. The results demonstrate a significant increase in simple reaction time with increased music volume and shows that louder music impacts an individual’s capacity to react to a stimulus.  Although the study was not conducted while the individual was driving, the results strongly suggest that high music volume could significantly impair a driver’s response time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 669
Author(s):  
Paweł Krukow ◽  
Małgorzata Plechawska-Wójcik ◽  
Arkadiusz Podkowiński

Aggrandized fluctuations in the series of reaction times (RTs) are a very sensitive marker of neurocognitive disorders present in neuropsychiatric populations, pathological ageing and in patients with acquired brain injury. Even though it was documented that processing inconsistency founds a background of higher-order cognitive functions disturbances, there is a vast heterogeneity regarding types of task used to compute RT-related variability, which impedes determining the relationship between elementary and more complex cognitive processes. Considering the above, our goal was to develop a relatively new assessment method based on a simple reaction time paradigm, conducive to eliciting a controlled range of intra-individual variability. It was hypothesized that performance variability might be induced by manipulation of response-stimulus interval’s length and regularity. In order to verify this hypothesis, a group of 107 healthy students was tested using a series of digitalized tasks and their results were analyzed using parametric and ex-Gaussian statistics of RTs distributional markers. In general, these analyses proved that intra-individual variability might be evoked by a given type of response-stimulus interval manipulation even when it is applied to the simple reaction time task. Collected outcomes were discussed with reference to neuroscientific concepts of attentional resources and functional neural networks.


Author(s):  
Wojciech J. Cynarski ◽  
Jan Słopecki ◽  
Bartosz Dziadek ◽  
Peter Böschen ◽  
Paweł Piepiora

(1) Study aim: This is a comparative study for judo and jujutsu practitioners. It has an intrinsic value. The aim of this study was to showcase a comparison of practitioners of judo and a similar martial art jujutsu with regard to manual abilities. The study applied the measurement of simple reaction time in response to a visual stimulus and handgrip measurement. (2) Materials and Methods: The group comprising N = 69 black belts from Poland and Germany (including 30 from judo and 39 from jujutsu) applied two trials: “grasping of Ditrich rod” and dynamometric handgrip measurement. The analysis of the results involved the calculations of arithmetic means, standard deviations, and Pearson correlations. Analysis of the differences (Mann–Whitney U test) and Student’s t-test were also applied to establish statistical differences. (3) Results: In the test involving handgrip measurement, the subjects from Poland (both those practicing judo and jujutsu) gained better results compared to their German counterparts. In the test involving grasping of Ditrich rod, a positive correlation was demonstrated in the group of German judokas between the age and reaction time of the subjects (rxy = 0.66, p < 0.05), as well as in the group of jujutsu subjects between body weight and the reaction time (rxy = 0.49, p < 0.05). A significant and strong correlation between handgrip and weight was also established for the group of German judokas (rxy = 0.75, p < 0.05). In Polish competitors, the correlations were only established between the age and handgrip measurements (rxy = 0.49, p < 0.05). (4) Conclusions: Simple reaction times in response to visual stimulation were shorter in the subjects practicing the martial art jujutsu. However, the statement regarding the advantage of the judokas in terms of handgrip force was not confirmed by the results.


1974 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 461-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Näätänen ◽  
V. Muranen ◽  
A. Merisalo

1982 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.David Milner ◽  
Christopher R. Lines

1976 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia T. Michie ◽  
Alex M. Clarke ◽  
John D. Sinden ◽  
Leonard C.T. Glue

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana M. Degani ◽  
Alessander Danna-Dos-Santos ◽  
Mark L. Latash

We tested the hypothesis that a sequence of mechanical events occurs preceding a step that scales in time and magnitude as a whole in a task-specific manner, and is a reflection of a “motor program.” Young subjects made a step under three speed instructions and four tasks: stepping straight ahead, down a stair, up a stair, and over an obstacle. Larger center-of-pressure (COP) and force adjustments in the anteriorposterior direction and smaller COP and force adjustments in the mediolateral direction were seen during stepping forward and down a stair, as compared with the tasks of stepping up a stair and over an obstacle. These differences were accentuated during stepping under the simple reaction time instruction. These results speak against the hypothesis of a single motor program that would underlie postural preparation to stepping. They are more compatible with the reference configuration hypothesis of whole-body actions.


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