The effects of physical fitness and exercise on cardiac awareness

This experiment was run to further evaluate the role of individual difference factors in perception of heart beats (cardiac awareness). The present study examined 24 male subjects who showed high and moderate levels of physical fitness. Cardiac awareness was examined using Brener-Jones type discrimination trials. Subjects discriminated first while standing quietly on a treadmill (32 trials), then while walking briskly on a motorized treadmill (32 trials), and finally during recovery from exercise (elevated HR but behavioral quiescence) (16 trials). Results showed that only the moderate fitness group showed heightened awareness during exercise, while both groups showed greater than chance awareness during recovery from exercise. Neither group was highly aware while resting before exercise. These results fail to support notions that high fitness distance runners are highly aware of cardiac function during exercise. A number of reasons for this finding are discussed.