ABSTRACT
Background and objectives: The reaction time has been known as an important psychophysical method useful for relating mental events to physical measures. Also it has been utilized as an index of sensory, motor and cognitive processes since the inception of the study of behaviour as a laboratory science. So the present study was undertaken to observe and compare the responses of young males and females in predictable and unpredictable environmental setting by employing choice reaction time tasks with constant fore-period of 2 seconds and randomly occurring variable fore-periods of 0.6, 2, 4, 6 seconds. Methods: The choice reaction time tasks were performed for visual and auditory stimuli with constant and variable fore-periods using “Techno Digital Response Time” apparatus. The data were analyzed by Z test. P< 0.05 was considered significant. Results: It was observed that choice reaction times to visual as well as auditory stimuli were lesser in males than in females (p < 0.001) in both constant and variable fore-periods. It was also observed that auditory choice reaction time was shorter than visual choice reaction time. Conclusions: In conclusion, males have shorter reaction time than females. Males react faster than females to changes in the external environment and males are quicker in responding to the unpredictable situations. Choice reaction time (CRT) to auditory stimulus is shorter than that to visual stimulus in both males and females.
ABSTRACT
Background: The damage that long-term alcohol abuse can do to the hematologic profile, is well documented; but, whether moderate alcohol intake for a short duration; alters hematologic profile or not, has not been established. Objective: In the present study, we examined hematologic profile in a group of short-term moderate alcohol drinkers and age and sex matched controls. Materials and Methods: The present cross sectional study was conducted in one of the tertiary care hospital. We recruited thirty young (20-40 years) men with history of daily 2 to 3 units of alcohol intake/day for the past 1 to 3 years duration. Another thirty age matched men, who were alcohol abstainers, served as controls. Two ml of blood was collected from anterior cubital vein after 12 hours of fasting. Hematological parameters were measured by using KX-21 Sysmex Automated Hematology Analyzer. Data were presented as means ± SD, and analysed using the one tailed unpaired (equal variance) ‘t’ test. The level of significance was taken at P values < 0.05. Results: We observed that the MCV value was significantly higher and platelet count was significantly lower in the moderate drinkers as compared to controls. Conclusion: Moderate alcohol intake for even a short duration has deleterious effects on hematologic profile in Indian men.