Carbon monoxide exposure and information processing during perceptual-motor performance

Summary This study examined the influence of exposure to ambient carbon monoxide resulting in final carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) levels of approximately 5.0% on the ability to process information during motor performance. Subjects (n=16) performed a primary reciprocal tapping task and a secondary digit manipulation task singly and/or concurrently during 2.5 h exposure to room air (0 ppm CO) or 100 ppm CO. Five levels of tapping difficulty and two levels of digit manipulation were employed. Tapping performance was unaffected when COHb levels were as high as 5%. However, at this level of COHb it was noted that CO exposure interacted with task difficulty of both tasks to influence reaction time on the digit manipulation task. It was concluded that motor performance was not influenced by exposure to CO leading to COHb concentrations of 5%. Task difficulty was a significant factor mediating behavioral effects of CO exposure.This work was supported in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under grant R808177010 and the U.S. National Institutes of Health under grant RR07099. (Although the research described in this article has been funded in part by the EPA through grant RR07099 to the Institute of Environmental Stress, it has not been subjected to the agency's required peer and policy review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the angency and no official endorsement should be inferred.)