Effects of wearing a mouth guard and movement complexity on simple reaction time

The purpose of the study was to determine how use of a mouth guard and movement complexity affect reaction time of whole body movement. A design was developed to study whether wearing a mouth guard or not affects simple reaction time. Further, the study examined the hypothesis that movement complexity affects simple reaction time. The experiment consisted of three prescribed whole body movements of varying complexity. Participants in the experiment were 12 college aged males enrolled in a kinesiology major. They were free from injury and had some experience playing sports. Reaction time was determined using ground reaction force data measured by a force plate. Video data captured by a single video camera were digitized to verify the onset of movement. A two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures on both factors revealed no significant mouth guard effect. A significant movement complexity effect resulted in longer reaction times for a high complexity movement than for low and moderate complexity movements that revealed similar reaction times. A significant interaction effect resulted in shorter reaction times on the low and moderate complexity movements when wearing a self-adapted mouth guard than when not wearing a mouth guard. The current study examined the "memory drum" hypothesis by applying new technologies for understanding whole body movement. Further research will be required to replicate the results of the current study and to apply them to practice.