Simple reaction time and decision making performance after different physical workloads: an examination with elite athletes

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate effects of both local and general physical fatigue on visual simple and visual choice reaction time of elite level athletes. 15 male and 3 female national Muay-Thai athletes (M_age = 21.55, SD= 3.47) who participated at least 5 training sessions per week volunteered to participate present study. Subjects were asked to perform Wingate anaerobic test on a mechanically braked cycle ergometer (834 E, Monark) to induce general fatigue. Hand grip dynamometer was used for resistance exercises to induce local fatigue. Simple, two-choice and three-choice visual reaction times were measured at resting, after local and general physical fatigue conditions both on right and left hands, respectively. The results of repeated measure ANOVAs yielded that compared to resting conditions simple reaction time significantly increased after inducing the local and general physical fatigue on both hands. On the other hand, although two-choice and three-choice reaction time mean scores increased from resting to both general and local physical fatigue conditions, these increments were not statistically different among measurements. It was concluded that both dynamic and resistance exercise induced fatigue may seems to lengthen only simple reaction time and did not affect decision making processes of elite level Muay-Thai athletes.