Effects of whole-body vibration on short-term memory.

An experiment has been conducted to investigate the effects of whole-body vibration on cognitive performance independent of the direct mechanical action of vibration on vision and manual control. Sixteen subjects completed a short-term memory task (memory scanning) during exposure to 16 Hz sinusoidal whole-body vibration at four magnitudes: 0, 1.0, 1.6, and 2.5 ms-2 r.m.s. The results show a detrimental effect of vibration on performance when measured by mean reaction time (p less than 0.001) and number of attentional lapses (p less than 0.01). Response errors rose significantly during the 1.0 ms-2 r.m.s. condition alone. The data suggest that vibration disrupts central cognitive mechanisms utilized during the processing of information in short-term memory, although compensatory cognitive procedures may exist to minimise these effects.