title: Short-term exposure with vibration and its effect on attention.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  About 20 to 50 percent of accidents are due to some forms of carelessness and mindedness. Studies suggested that vibration is one of the most important physical factors in human performance when traveling on any sort of vehicles. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of vehicles vibration on cognitive performance (attention and concentration).
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample consists of 25 male students who undergone 4 experimental phases: acceleration low vibration (0.53 m/s(2)), medium vibration (0.81 m/s(2)), high vibration (1.12 m/s(2)) and non- exposure to vibration (control phase) according to ISO 2631-1 standard and with fixed frequency between 3 to 7 Hz. Students paired T test was applied to analysis the data, using SPSS software ver. 19.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean number of correct answers obtained from selective attention test under vibration levels of 0.53 m/s(2) and 0.81 m/s(2) were significantly lower than the condition without vibration. The mean reaction time of divided attention test in three vibration levels was significantly lower than the condition without vibration. Exposing to vibration reduces number of correct answers, selective attention and reaction time.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, it was found that vibration may disrupt the ability of the participants for sustainability attention. It also changes the precision and speed of humans' information processing systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Health, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zamanian
authors.affiliation: Department of Ergonomics, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Asghar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nikravesh
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, and Center for Air Pollution Research (CAPR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Monazzam
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Jafar
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hassanzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fararouei
keywords: Accidents; Attention; Concentration; Neuropsychological tests; Whole body vibration