The effects of inert gas narcosis on the speed and accuracy of movement

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Abstract
Inert gas narcosis was induced with N20 and its effects on Fitts’ Law were studied using a reciprocal tapping task with different values of A(movement amplitude) and W (target width). In Experiment 1 it was found that N20 slowed MT (movement time) by increasing the slope of Fitts’ function and also increased variability of shots on the target. The slope increase was replicated in Experiment 2 but training and KR (knowledge of results) eliminated the increased variability found in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, when MT was regressed on amplitude with accuracy constant and on accuracy with amplitude constant, N20 increased the slopes of the latter set of regression lines but not the former. This was taken as evidence that disruption of a control process concerned with error correction is implicated in the slope increase seen with Fitts’ Law. It was also concluded that increased variability is not a necessary concomitant of narcosis and its occurrence can be explained in terms of a trade-off between speed and accuracy.