An investigation of the acute effect of self and physiotherapist-performed upper extremity neural mobilization on reaction time in healthy young adults

This study planned to investigate the acute effect of neural mobilization on reaction time in healthy young adults. A total of 120 university students with a mean age of 21.75±2.2 years were included in the study. The participants were divided into four groups of 30 participants each: self-mobilization (Group 1), self-placebo mobilization (Group 2), mobilization by a physiotherapist (Group 3), and placebo mobilization by a physiotherapist (Group 4) groups in which radial, median and ulnar nerve mobilizations performed. SWAY mobile application was used to evaluate the reaction time. Ulnar, Median and Radial neural mobilization were applied to the dominant upper extremities of the participants whose first measurements were taken with the SWAY mobile application with five repetitions of five seconds. Immediately afterward, the final measures were taken with the SWAY mobile application. Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparisons between groups, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used for comparisons between groups, and Kruskall Wallis test was used for comparisons between groups. It determined that demographic characteristics and measured reaction time for each group were similar at the beginning and the difference between the groups was not statistically significant (p>0.05). In the measurements made after the applications, it was seen that neural mobilization did not cause a statistically significant change in reaction time in the self- mobilization, self-placebo mobilization, and mobilization by physiotherapist groups (p>0.05), while there was a statistically significant difference in the placebo mobilization group performed by a physiotherapist (p<0.05). In conclusion, it was found that neural mobilization caused a decrease in reaction time in the short term, but this change was not statistically significant and it was thought that further studies are needed for more precise results on the effect of upper extremity neural mobilization on reaction time