Local muscular fatigue and attentional processes in a fencing task

Study of the effects of brief exercise on mental processes by Tomporowski a nd Ellis (1986) has shown that moderate muscular tension improves cognitive performance while low or high tension does not. Improvements in performanc e induced by exercise are commonly associated with increase in arousal, whi le impairments are generally attributed to the effects of muscular or centr al fatigue. To test two hypotheses, that (1) submaximal muscular exercise w ould decrease premotor time and increase motor time in a subsequent choice- RT task and (2) that submaximal muscular exercise would increase the attent ional and preparatory effects observed in premotor time 9 men, aged 20 to 3 0 years. performed an isometric test at 50% of their maximum voluntary cont raction between blocks of a 3-choice reaction-time fencing task. Analysis s howed (1) physical exercise did not improve postexercise premotor time, (2) muscular fatigue induced by isometric contractions did not increase motor time, (3) there was no effect of exercise on attentional and preparatory pr ocesses involved in the postexercise choice-RT task. The invalidation of hy potheses was mainly explained by disparity in directional effects across su bjects and by use of an exercise that was not really fatiguing.