Comparison of hand and foot reaction times among females- a methodological study using recognition auditory reaction time

Reaction time is a simple means of determing the sensorimotor performance of an individual. It has been more widely used as an objective method in experimental procedure in field of data processing. Auditory recognition reaction time is a type of reaction time and it plays a very important role while driving vehicles. Previous studies were mainly on simple and choice reaction time and there are very less studies on recognition reaction time. The aim of our study was to compare the dominant hand recognition reaction time with that of foot. The present study was conducted in department of Physiology, JIPMER, Puducherry on 60 healthy female volunteers. After giving adequate practice, hand and foot recognition auditory reaction time were recorded using Reaction Time Machine (RTM 608, Medcaid, Chandighar). The result showed auditory recognition reaction time was significantly more for foot when compared with hand. This could be because of difference in nerve conduction velocity and movement time of the hand when compared with that of foot.