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.