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Intraindividual and interindividual variations in psychomotor task performance in spontaneously menstruating women
1Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Al-Mustansiriya University, PO Box 14132, Baghdad, Iraq. Tel. +964 7902600291. Fax. +964 (1) 5410584.
Objective:
To examine the variability in psychomotor task performance in women in reference to the menstrual cycle.
Methods:
One hundred and eighty young women with spontaneous regular menstrual period of 30 days duration and 20 young men were assessed in the Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad, Iraq during 2003.
Results:
Women had significantly lower recognition as well as motor reaction time than men with wide inter and intraindividual variations. Women also had a lower critical flicker fusion frequency threshold than men with more variation. The changes in psychomotor performance are not specific for a certain phase of the menstrual cycle.
Conclusion:
Spontaneously menstruating young women are not good participants for psychomotor performance studies because of wide intra- and interindividual variations.
