April 2026, Volume 4, Issue 4

Author

Franc Oumanath, Hemalatha Manjeshwara and Gopinath Manavazhagan

Abstract

Background: The continuous and increased exposure to mobile screen increases the concern about its effects on cognitive functions, particularly reaction time which serves as a sensitive indicator of sensorimotor integration and processing speed. Recent researches report the increased screen reduces the reaction time. However, the relationship between mobile display technology and screen settings remains unclear. Aims & Objectives: To assess difference in reaction time (Visual and Auditory) with various mobile display and display settings and to determine the association between gender and reaction time among the study participants. Methods: A cross sectional observational study was conducted among young healthy adults aged 18-30 years in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Puducherry district. 387 participants were recruited through convenience sampling method. Each participant mobile phone type screen type and settings of blue filter and duration phone usage were recorded. After completion of baseline assessments participants visual and auditory reaction time were measured. The data were analysed using SPSS 22 version. Reaction times across display types and blue-light filter categories were compared using One-way ANOVA, while Mann-Whitney U and paired t tests examined gender differences. Results: Out of 387 part, 156 (54.4%) were females out of which, 180 (62.7%) were between 20 to 30 years of age. Most of the participants reported more than 6 hours of daily mobile use. Reaction times did not differ significantly across display types or refresh rates (p > 0.05). In contrast, visual reaction times varied with blue-light filter status, discriminatory visual RT reports significant difference among groups (p = 0.020), and simple visual RT was borderline significant (p = 0.050), while auditory measures were unaffected. A small but significant gender difference was observed for simple visual RT, and mean heart rate increased post-testing (p = 0.022).