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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sports Med Int Open 2017; 1(05): E155-E159
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-115378
Clinical Sciences
Eigentümer und Copyright ©Georg Thieme Verlag KG 2017

Does Physical Fatigue Affect Color Vision?

Bor Tekavcic
1   University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Sport, Ljubljana, Slovenia
,
Radoje Čedomir Milić
1   University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Sport, Ljubljana, Slovenia
,
Manca Tekavcic Pompe
2   Eye Clinic, University Medical Centre, Eye Clinic, Ljubljana, Slovenia
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

received 04 December 2016
revised 19 June 2017

accepted 23 June 2017

Publication Date:
02 August 2017 (online)

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish whether physical fatigue affects color vision. Thirty healthy participants were included in the study (M:F=15:15), age 25.3±4.4 y, all professional or top amateur athletes. They were exhausted using the Wingate test (WT). Physical fatigue was determined by blood lactate level before the WT and 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 min after. Color vision was evaluated using the Hardy-Rand-Rittler (HRR) and the Mollon-Reffin Minimalist (MRM) tests before the WT and 5, 10 and 30 min after. Five minutes after the WT 2/30 (6%) showed affected color vision in the protan axis and 25/30 (83%) in the tritan axis. Ten and 30 min after the WT all the participants showed normal color vision in both the deutan and protan axes, whereas 12/30 (40%) and 8/30 (26%), respectively, showed affected color vision in the tritan axis. A gender difference was observed in color vision deficiency and improvement, with female participants being affected more and longer. The study showed that intense physical effort affects color vision with the tritan axis being predominantly affected.

Key words

color discrimination changes - anaerobic metabolic body conditions
 

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