Moderate anxiety modifies the electromyographic activity of a forearm muscle during a time-reaction task in women.

Arousal anxiety has a great impact on reaction time, physiological parameters and motor performance. Numerous studies have focused on the influence of anxiety on muscular activity during simple non ecologic task. We investigate the impact of a moderate state-anxiety (arousal stressor) on the specific component of a complex multi-joint ecologic movement during a reaction time task of auditory stimulus-response. Our objective is to know if central and peripheral voluntary motor processes were modulated in the same way by an arousal stressor. Eighteen women volunteers performed simple reaction time tasks of auditory stimulus-response. Video-recorded Stroop test with interferences was used to induced moderate state-anxiety. Electromyographic activity of the wrist extensor was recorded in order to analyse the two components of the reaction time: the premotor and motor time. In anxiogenic condition, an acceleration and an increase of muscular activity of the reaction time was obtained. This increase was due to a stronger muscle activity during the premotor time in the anxiogenic condition. Arousal anxiety has a different impact on central and peripheral voluntary motor processes. The modifications observed could be related to an increase in arousal related to a higher anxiety in order to prepare the body to act.

Trait-anxiety dependence of movement time performance in a bimodal choice task in subjects exposed to moderate anxiogenic conditions.

Recent studies have provided insight into the interdependence between state-anxiety, trait-anxiety and motor performances. In the present study, we investigated in very low trait-anxiety (VLTA) and normal trait-anxiety (NTA) subjects, the effects of moderate state-anxiety induced by the video-recorded Stroop color word interference test, on reaction time and movement time in bimodal choice response time task providing either visual or auditory modality. We found that in anxiogenic condition, movement time performances were improved in visual modality in NTA subjects, and in auditory modality in VLTA subjects. Our results show that depending on their trait-anxiety level, individuals exposed to anxiogenic condition would allocate attentional resources towards a specific relevant modality. Such attentional resources would influence movement time, but not reaction time.

Moderate state-anxiety differently modulates visual and auditory response times in normal- and very low trait-anxiety subjects.

Because relationships between mood states, personality and motor performances remain ambiguous, we investigated in very low trait-anxiety (VLTA) and normal trait-anxiety (NTA) subjects, the effects of moderate state-anxiety, tension and fatigue induced by the video-recorded Stroop Color-Word Interference Test on reaction time and movement time in visual and auditory tasks. Our results show that visual response time performances were improved in NTA subjects, while auditory response time performances were improved in VLTA subjects. In both groups, improvement of performance occurred at the reaction time and movement time level. Our results show that allocation of attentional resources can be modulated by personality traits, such as trait-anxiety, and furthermore highlight personality and individual differences as regards to the human/environment interaction.

Effects of mood states and anxiety as induced by the video-recorded stroop color-word interference test in simple response time tasks on reaction time and movement time.

Mood states and anxiety might alter performance in complex tasks whereas in more simple tasks such as stimulus-response, high anxiety could provoke bias in mechanisms of attention leading to better performances. We investigated the effects of anxiety, tension, and fatigue induced by the video-recorded Stroop Color-Word Interference Test on either reaction or movement time. 61 subjects performed a visual and an auditory response-time test in Control and Anxiogenic conditions during which heart rate was measured. Tension and anxiety states were assessed using self-evaluation. Analysis showed auditory response time was improved for both reaction and movement times in the Anxiogenic condition. These data suggest that the increased attention underlying anxiety and mood responses could have favored auditory response time by leading subjects to process stimuli more actively. In addition, state-anxiety and tension could have influenced muscular tension, enhancing the movement time in the auditory task.

Relationships of personality traits with performance in reaction time, psychomotor ability, and mental efficiency during a 31-day simulated climb of Mount Everest in a hypobaric chamber'.

Exposure to chronic hypoxia induces behavioral and mood disturbances and alterations in cognitive functions. We examined the relationships of personality traits, including trait-anxiety, with performance in binary visual reaction time, psychomotor ability, and mental efficiency, using the psychological database of the 'Everest-Comex 97' experiment, which consisted in a 31-day simulated climb in a hypobaric chamber from sea level to 8,848 m altitude. Analysis yielded a significant positive correlation between the climbers' mean reaction time at hypoxic conditions and preclimb scores on trait-anxiety (as assessed by Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and further significant negative correlations with both Factor A (reserved-outgoing) and Factor G (expedient-conscientious) of the Cattell Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. In contrast, no significant correlation was found between the climbers' mean psychomotor performance and mental efficiency with personality traits, including anxiety. These findings agree with those of previous studies: (i) anxiety could mediate stimulus-response tasks but not more complex tasks requiring strategic processes, (ii) individuals with personality traits such as 'reserved' and 'expedient' could have slight advantages in processing information on stimulus-response tasks. Limitations in study design are also discussed.

State-anxiety and low moods: evidence for a single concept.

The aim of the study was to examine the Spielberger's hypothesis, according to which changes in state-anxiety level would correspond exactly to adverse changes in mood states. We analyzed the correlation coefficients between state-anxiety and low moods, and further investigated whether these correlation coefficients increase when mood factors were grouped and added as the Spielberger's hypothesis would suggest. Data were obtained from previous studies performed in eight subjects exposed to hypoxic conditions during a 31-day simulated climb from sea level to 8848 m equivalent altitude in a hypobaric chamber. Adding scores of mood states (by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6) improved progressively and significantly the correlation coefficient between state-anxiety levels and mood scores when taken individually, up to a maximal increase of 75% of the correlation value when all of the mood factors were added together. The relationship between the number of mood factors by group and the increase in the correlation coefficients between state-anxiety and moods describes a perfect logarithmic regression (r=.9999, n=6, P<.001), that leads to the prediction that 21 mood factors would be needed to define fully the feelings experienced during state-anxiety. This study provides objective evidence for the Spielberger's hypothesis and suggests that low moods and state-anxiety could be arranged in a single concept, and low moods at large regarded as the human feelings experienced during state-anxiety responses. The present relationships were obtained in subjects exposed to stressful environmental hypoxic conditions and should be confirmed for other stressful general conditions.

Relationships between mood states and performances in reaction time, psychomotor ability, and mental efficiency during a 31-day gradual decompression in a hypobaric chamber from sea level to 8848 m equivalent altitude.

High altitude is characterized by hypoxic environmental conditions that may induce a set of pathological disorders, known as acute mountain sickness. In addition to the physiological symptoms, exposure to high altitude may also produce adverse changes in motor skills, mental efficiency, and mood states, including anxiety. In the present study, we investigated the relationships between mood states, including anxiety, and performance changes in reaction time, psychomotor ability and mental efficiency in eight climbers participating in the 'Everest-Comex 97', a 31-day gradual decompression in a hypobaric chamber from sea level to 8848 m equivalent altitude. Tests of visual reaction time, manual dexterity, and number ordination were used; anxiety responses and mood states were assessed using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the 'Profile of Mood States' (POMS), respectively. A significant positive correlation was found between the climbers' performance in reaction time and changes in state-type anxiety levels, suggesting that anxiety could lead to an improved reaction time. In addition, significant negative correlations were also found between the climbers' performance in psychomotor ability, mental efficiency, and reaction time, and several POMS factors, including Tension, Hostility, Confusion, and Fatigue. Overall, these data indicate, in agreement with previous studies, that anxiety may favour, or at least not alter, the processes of information of relatively simple tasks, such as reaction time, and further suggest that adverse changes in moods could modulate performance negatively.