Communication During Exertion: Language Production And Comprehension Performance During Exercise At The Ventilatory Threshold.

PURPOSE: Soldiers are called upon to shoot, move, and communicate often under one or more stressors. Research has demonstrated physical stress effects on the former two essential Soldier tasks, but not how physical exertion influences various aspects of communication. The present study aims to examine language production and comprehension during sustained physical exertion. METHODS: Thirty-six (7 women, Age: 23.1 ± 4.6 years, BMI: 25.0 ± 4.2 kg/m2, VO2max: 46.8 ± 9.2 ml/kg/min) civilians and active-duty soldiers completed a VO2max test and a one-hour walk at and below the ventilatory threshold (VT) on separate days. They completed measures of language production and comprehension before, every 15 minutes during, and after exercise. Repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) compared communication across exercise intensity (VT, sub-VT) and Time (0/Pre, 15, 30, 45, and 65/Post minutes). RESULTS: For language production, fundamental frequency (pitch) was higher after exercise than at any time point before or during exercise (p < .001). Language comprehension did not differ across exercise intensity or time (ps > .17) but an interaction revealed that before and after low-intensity exercise, reading comprehension accuracy was higher for surface than gist-level emotional information only (ps < .05), whereas before after moderate-intensity exercise, accuracy was higher for surface than gist-level contextual and spatial, respectively, information only (ps < .01). At minutes 15 and 30 during exercise below the VT, accuracy was higher for gist-than surface level temporal and emotional, respectively, information only (ps < .05). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that exercise intensity, particularly at and below at VT, influence communication performance in a nuanced manner depending on the information level and type.