Effects of Carbon Dioxide Inhalation on Psychomotor and Mental Performance during Exercise and Recovery

Psychomotor and mental tests involving reaction time, rotor pursuit, short-term memory for digits and letters, and reasoning ability were administered to subjects inhaling up to 5% CO2 in air and in gas mixtures containing 50% O2, The psychomotor and mental tests were given during the 6 min of recovery following 10 min of treadmill running at 80% of aerobic capacity. Although the subjects inhaled the CO2 during the entire exercise and recovery period there was no difference in performance between the CO2 inhalation condition and the control condition for any of the performance measures.