Validation of PC 1000 Hz Reaction Timer with Biopac® MP 36 for Recording Simple Reaction Time

ABSTRACT

Background: In neuropsychological assessment, the time taken by a subject or patient to respond tostimulus provides valuable information about processing in central and peripheral nervous system. Reactiontime is a simple and inexpensive method commonly used in cognitive and sport physiology to assess thesensory-motor performance of an individual.Objective: To compare and validate the baseline values of simple reaction time obtained using the PC 1000Hz reaction timer with Biopac® MP 36.Materials and Methods: 50 healthy subjects (32 males and 18 females) with age of 22.78±3.90 yrs andBMI of 24.820±3.59 kg/m2 participated. Visual (VRT) and auditory (ART) reaction time were estimated usingPC 1000 Hz reaction timer and Biopac® MP 36 separately for minimum of three trials each.Results: There was no significant difference found in ART and VRT values of the subjects estimated by PC1000 Hz and Biopac® MP 36. A strong significant (P<0.01) correlation was found in ART (r=0.92) and VRT(r=0.94) in between the devices. Bland Altman plot also showed that variations for VRT and ART were withinthe acceptable range.Conclusion: The present validation study recommend that the assessment of simple reaction time forauditory and visual stimulus by PC 1000 Hz reaction timer is reliable one and compared with other techniquesit has more advantages such as portable in nature and simplicity to use either in laboratory or in fieldoriented study for the evaluation of psychomotor and cognitive function.