Performance Decrement

Berkim, M. M. (1964). Performance Decrement Under Psychological Stress. Human Factors 6,21-30. 

It has been estimated that hundreds of billions of dollars per year is lost due to decreased workplace productivity and increased health costs that can be saved by maintaining good indoor air quality in commercial buildings. The financial benefits of improving lAQ can accrue from reducing costs for health care and sick leave, as well as the costs of performance decrements at work caused by illness or adverse health symptoms and of responding to occupant complaints and costs of LAQ investigations. 

Kishi R, Harabuchi 1, Ikeda T, et al. 1993. Acute effects of trichloroethylene on blood concentrations and performance decrements in rats and their relevance to humans. Br J Ind Med 50 470-480. 

Results showed that both novelty and white noise improved recall performance under placebo and decreased it under caffeine.6 It appears that the additional arousal generated by novelty and white noise served to push caffeine subjects over the top of the inverted-U curve and hence decrease their recall performance. Thus, it may be that caffeine does improve memory performance under conditions that otherwise produce low arousal. However, any condition causing overarousal, whether or not it is a part of the memory task itself, can yield performance decrements. 

Fowler B, Paul M, Porlier G, Elcombe DD and Taylor M (1985). A re-evaluation of the minimum altitude at which hypoxic performance decrements can be detected. Ergonomics, 28, 781-791. 

Snyder FR, Davis FC, Henningfield JE. (1989). The tobacco withdrawal syndrome performance decrements assessed on a computerized test battery. Drug Alcohol Depend. 23(3) 259-66. 

Fig. 25. EA 3443 - Effect of intramuscular physostigmine on NF performance decrement produced by the intramuscular ID50...

We used an additional analysis to support the estimated LD50/ID50 ratio for BZ. Upon reviewing the LD50 of several glycolates in the mouse, it appeared that the lethality of each closely paralleled its peripheral (as reflected in heart rate changes) rather than central effects (as reflected in performance decrements). This calls into doubt the opinion, voiced in previous textbooks of pharmacology, that death from belladonnoids such as atropine results from respiratory paralysis -primarily a central nervous system effect. 

The duration of 302034 effects was roughly equal to that of fluphenazine (Fig. 111). NF performance decrement produced by 302034 was maximal at about 8 to 12 hours. Full recovery (not shown in this chart) did not occur until about 36 hours. Due to a lack of potency, this category of drugs did not seem to warrant further study, especially since indifference in a combat situation might be overcome by the instinct of self-preservation. Also, these subjects were not confused and could probably function on a battlefied if the situation became life-threatening. 

Cucinell SA, Cummings EG, Holgate SH Sweat inhibition and performance decrements in man following percutaneous exposure to EA 3834. Edgewood Arsenal Technical Report EB-TR-76004, 1975. 

SideU FR, Pless JE Ethyl alcohol blood levels and performance decrements after oral administration to man. 

Neurobehavioral tests have found slight, but statistically significant, performance decrements after 4-hour exposure to 250ppm, suggesting mild CNS depression at this level. ... 

Exposure of humans at 15,000-20,OOOppm causes anesthesia. At levels of 42 00-53 00 ppm for 30 minutes, cognitive tests indicated a performance decrement for remembering word pairs. ... 

Dinges DF, Pack F, Williams K, Gillen KA, Powell JW, Ott GE, Aptowicz C, Pack AI. Cumulative sleepiness, mood disturbance, and psychomotor vigilance performance decrements during a week of sleep restricted to 4—5 hours per night. Sleep 1997 20(4) 267-277. 

Lyman EG, Orlady HW. Fatigue and associated performance decrements in air transport operations, NASA Ames Research Centre, Battelle Columbus Laboratories, ASRS Office, 1981. 

In conclusion, field studies are limited in number and precision. High variance in study design no doubt contributes to inconsistencies in findings. Perhaps the best evidence for athletic performance decrement secondary to significant sleep deprivation is the complete absence of any study that has deliberately deprived elite athletes of sleep prior to a meaningful competitive event. There have been ample opportunities, but apparently no volunteers. 

In summary, the literature suggests pemoline could be useful for sustaining alertness and performance over short periods of sleep deprivation (24 hr). In fact, there are some indications that pemoline is more efficacious for this purpose than methylphenidate, although the drug may have a slower onset of action. Pemoline seems to affect reaction time more so than accuracy in various performance tasks, and it exerts no substantial effect on mood. One study raised the possibility that multiple doses may actually produce performance decrements in some tasks after the second day of continuous wakefulness, and this issue remains unresolved. In light of this fact and the fact that pemoline has been associated with hepatic failure, pemoline should not be considered for the maintenance of wakefulness in sleep-deprived people. 

In comparison to caffeine, pemoline, and methylphenidate, amphetamine appears to offer a more consistent and prolonged alerting effect (100,192), and both the benefits and drawbacks are fairly well known because amphetamines have a long history of use in real-world settings, particularly in military aviation. It has been concluded that to date, the most promising stimulants to counteract performance decrements attributed to aircrew sustained operations are the amphetamines (191, p. 269). Furthermore, Comum et al. (193) have stated that the proper administration of amphetamines to severely fatigued personnel can make the difference between a mission that ends safely and one that ends in disaster. 

Brun et al. (216) evaluated the mental performance, hormone levels, and temperatures of eight sleep-deprived volunteers given 300-mg of modafinil at 22 00 and 08 00. Modafinil did not affect melatonin, cortisol, or growth hormone levels, but it did attenuate performance decrements, attenuate the nocturnal decrease in body temperature, and increase daytime body temperature. These temperature effects are different from what has been observed in non-sleep-deprived subjects. Bourdon et al. (217) found no effects of 200 mg of modafinil on thermal balance in neutral conditions and no effect on thermoregulation in cold conditions (despite a tendency toward greater reductions in core temperature when modafinil was applied in a cold environment). However, these authors did not examine temperature effects beyond 3 hr in the morning. The differences with... 

Lubin A, Hord DJ, Tracy ML, Johnson LC. Effects of exercise, bedrest and napping on performance decrement during 40 hours. Psychophysiology 1976 13 334—514. 

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