My wife is conducting a study at the University of the West of England into the effects of energy drinks on mental and physical performance.
She needs 20 cyclists to take part, full details below. Essential requirements, able to attend UWE in north Bristol on up to six occasions, be fit not fat, a non-smoker and aged between 18-28.
Please email her at karina.stewart@uwe.ac.uk
The small print:
Participants should have a body mass index of 21–25 kg/m2 and you must be caffeine tolerant. You will be screened to check your suitability for participation initially, and before each testing session.
The study will be carried out at UWE by Drs Chris Alford and Gary Christopher (Psychology), Rob Prince and Karina Stewart (Physiology). There will be an initial introductory session for participants to undergo screening and try out the equipment. For both exercise and cognitive tests this session may take around three hours. We will need to know some basic details about you (contact details, age and gender etc.) and you will need to fill in medical screening and consent forms.
If accepted, you will be asked to return for up to five sessions: three for physical performance tests and twice for mental performance tests. During the period of the experiment we will ask you to keep a diary of your food intake and exercise, particularly in the period immediately before testing. Our aim is that you should come into the tests as near as possible in the same condition. This means trying to have the same food and fluid intake, and the same amount of exercise/sleep etc. We will carry out the tests first thing in the morning and we will provide you with a 'standard meal' of dried fruits and water before asking you to perform the tests (NB. you must not consume anything else (other than water) in the 12 hours before the test).
The tests will be conducted about a week apart:
Physical tests:
1. In the first test you will be screened and we will measure your performance (‘VO2max’) on a cycle ergometer. This test normally lasts about 12-18 min and is a measure of your fitness. We will push you to your limit to find out what workload you can tolerate. We expect this session to take 1.5-2 h to complete.
2. You will be screened again and 40 min before the second test you will be given an energy drink. We will then ask you to cycle a set distance at a moderately high workload. The distance should take about 1 h to complete, but you will be encouraged to finish in as short a time as possible (we will measure how quick you are). your fitness. We will push you to your limit to find out what workload you can tolerate. We expect this session to take approx. 3 h to complete
3. The third test is the same as the second, but with a different energy drink.
Cognitive performance tests:
1. As with the exercise test you will be given an energy drink before carrying out the cognitive performance tests, which are expected to take about 2.5 h to complete.
2. The second test is the same as the first, but with a different energy drink.
Things we will measure:
• Caffeine (in samples of your saliva).
• Alcohol and nicotine content (using breathalysers).
• Height, weight, and percentage body fat and body water.
• Blood sugar and lactate (using a pin prick test from the earlobe).
• We may take a small urine sample to check that you are properly hydrated and to look for nitrogen as a measure of your protein metabolism.
• Heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, O2 intake and CO2 output will be monitored continuously during exercise tests.
• We will ask you to rate your level of perceived exertion during exercise.
• The cognitive tests will be computer or paper-based and will assess: reaction times, memory, alertness, mood and information-processing ability.
After the experiment has finished, you may have a copy of your own data and, as a thank you, participants will receive a one-off payment of up to £150. All data will be stored using a code and no personally identifiable information will be made available to any third party (unless required by law).
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