Effects of central and peripheral Go/No-Go signals on reactions to peripheral stimuli in virtual reality

Introduction Reactions and their inhibition are crucial in many sports. Visual reaction times (RTs) typically increase with eccentricity, and inhibition tasks produce slower RTs than simple reaction tasks. In sports, responses to peripheral stimuli often depend on an additional signal. This randomized within-subject study examined how the position of additional Go/No-Go-signals affects RTs to peripheral stimuli. Method Healthy adults (n = 30; eligibility: no red-green blindness, no motor restrictions) performed a virtual reality reaction task to stimuli at varying eccentricities in three conditions using a virtual reaction wall. In the no-signal condition, participants reacted to illuminating buttons. In the two Go/No-Go conditions, an additional signal (green = Go, red = No-Go) appeared either centrally (central-signal condition) or peripherally (45° horizontally left and right; peripheral-signal condition). The primary outcome was RT to Go stimuli. Condition order was randomized for each participant using a computer-generated allocation. Results Three participants were excluded due to high error rates. Data from the remaining 27 participants showed that RTs increased with eccentricity. Reactions were fastest in the no-signal condition, followed by the central-signal condition, and slowest in the peripheral-signal condition. No evidence for differences in the slope of the eccentricity-related RT increase was observed. Conclusion This virtual reality setup replicated known real-world findings: RTs increase with eccentricity and are slower in inhibition tasks. The position of a Go/No-Go-signal influences absolute RTs, but no evidence for faciliatory or limiting influence of attentional shifts induced by the additional signals was found.