Effects of the Common Cold on Subjective Alertness, Reaction Time, and Eye Movements

Abstract

The present study examined whether volunteers with common colds showed impairments in objective and subjective indicators of alertness. All the volunteers (N = 81) were tested when healthy to provide baseline data for mood, simple and choice reaction time tasks, and an anti-saccadic eye movement task. When subjects developed a cold (N = 17) they returned to the laboratory and repeated the procedure. Volunteers (N = 64) who remained healthy over a 10-week period were recalled as controls. The results showed that those with colds felt significantly less alert and had significantly slower simple and choice reaction times and eye movements. This extends earlier research and shows that electrophysiological measures may also be of use in assessing the behavioral changes induced by upper respiratory tract illnesses.

Methods for studying naturally occurring human pain and their analogues

“…There are, however, examples where this approach has been used, and which may prove to be useful in the future. For example, Smith and colleagues (eg, [103][104][105]) have conducted a number of experimental studies of the effects of the common cold on cognitive performance using largely epidemiological recruitment methods. These are interesting approaches, especially as it has been argued that pain has interruptive effects on human cognitive performance [77,78], and so the common cold/influenza could be used to specifically investigate the effects of pain.…”

“…Recruitment in pain has been conducted [38] as have EMA techniques [56] Recruitment of participants when they report for pain treatment [124] Participants have been recruited at the point they seek treatment [82] Recruitment of those in pain is viable for menstrual pain Third molar extraction [73] Root canal treatment [96] and periodontitis [22] Recruitment of people when in pain [103][104][105] or seeking treatment is common [94] At risk Frequent recruitment of those at risk of pain [43,65,98] No studies were found recruiting those ''at risk'', however, risk factors are known [14,26] No evidence for at-risk recruitment those seeking analgesia following exercise, or following cosmetic procedures (eg, piercing, tattooing, depilation). Recruiting people whilst in pain provides both technical and ethical challenges, as it is not clear the extent to which people are able to consent to participation, especially if the study protocol requires temporarily withholding analgesia.…”

Twenty-five years of research on the behavioural malaise associated with influenza and the common cold

“…Hall and Smith (1996) found that having a cold was associated with a more negative mood and psychomotor impairment but little effect on other cognitive functions. These results were confirmed by Smith et al (1999a) in a study which also demonstrated that electrophysiological measures (speed of eye movements) are sensitive to the malaise associated with the common cold. Smith et al (1998) used virological assays to study the effects of the common cold on mood and performance.…”

Behavioral Effects of Upper Respiratory Tract Illnesses: A Consideration of Possible Underlying Cognitive Mechanisms

“…Indeed, an investigation of the effects of colds on speed of eye movements [19] has shown a similar slowing to that observed with sedative drugs. The reduction in arousal seen in those with a cold could be produced in several ways.…”

“…Studies of experimentally induced colds have shown that volunteers with colds have impaired psychomotor functioning (poor hand-eye co-ordination, slower response times in reaction time tasks [5,13,14]). Again, these findings have been replicated in studies of naturally occurring colds [15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]. Some studies have used virological assays [20] to ensure that upper respiratory tract infections are being studied.…”