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% CO 2 in air and in gas mixtures containing 50% O 2 , 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 CO 2 during the entire exercise and recovery period there was no difference in performance between the CO 2 inhalation condition and the control condition for any of the performance measures.