Issn Print: 0195-9131
Publication Date: 1997/05/01
EFFECT OF THE MENSTRUAL CYCLE & ORAL CONTRACEPTIVE USE ON COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE DURING EXERCISE 691
R Otterstetter; G H Kamimori; A K Lyden; T J Balkin; D A Brown; H Q Davis
Excerpt
Eleven healthy females, five oral contraceptive users (OC) and six non users (NO-OC) completed four trials. Subjects rode a cycle ergometer at moderate (MOD, 60% VO2peak) and high (HI, 80% VO2peak) intensities in the follicular (FOL, 2-6 days post-menses) and luteal (LUT, 22-26 days post-menses) phase of the menstrual cycle. In MOD, subjects completed three bouts of exercise (EX) (25 min cycle, 5 min rest) and one bout of EX in HI. Cognitive performance was measured at rest and during each EX bout. Tests included choice reaction (CHO), serial +/- (SER) and logical reasoning (LOG). EX significantly (p≤0.05) increased throughput (speed* accuracy/100) and speed in CHO with no difference between phases and regardless of OC use. Similar, results were observed for both SER and LOG. Accuracy was not significantly affected in any of the tasks. In accordance with current theories on the speed-accuracy trade-off, EX improved response time with no affect on precision. These results suggest that menstrual cycle phase and OC use have no significant affect on cognitive performance during moderate and high intensity exercise. Future research considerations include the incorporation of different cognitive tasks, and possibly longer exercise durations.
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