Effects of the whole-body vibration direction on the cognitive response of standing subjects

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of whole-body vibration along different axes on the response time (RT) of standing subjects during a customised psychomotor vigilance task (PVT). Twenty-five subjects were exposed to harmonic vibration with amplitude of 0.7 m/s² RMS and frequencies between 1.5 Hz and 12.5 Hz. ANOVA was used to assess if the difference of RT with and without vibration had a statistical relevance. Results showed that the RT was statistically affected by the vibration only at frequencies below 2 Hz. The vibration at higher frequencies had a minor effect on the RT. The RTs during the vibration exposure was, on average, 15% higher than the RT post exposure.

Practitioner summary: This study investigates the effects of whole-body vibration (WBV) along different axes on the response time (RT). We measured the RTs to a psychomotor vigilance task of 25 standing subject exposed to WBV. The cognitive response was statistically affected by the WBV and, on average RT have increased of 15%.

Keywords:

• Whole-body vibration
• cognitive performance
• PVT
• standing posture

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Setsuo Maeda for the suggestions about PVT tests and Eng. Teenu Arjun Ravi for his help during the experiments and the preliminary data analysis. Finally, Authors thank the anonymous Reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

Authors disclose professional relationships with companies or manufacturers who will benefit from the results of the present study. The results of the study are presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation.

Additional information

Funding

This project is funded by a grant from Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro (INAIL) [BRIC 2019 – Progetto CAPRICORN – ID 15].