The Effects of Wearing a Full-face Motorcycle Helmet on Cognitive Performance in a Warm Environment

INTRODUCTION Riders of powered two-wheelers (PTW), such as motorcycles and mopeds, have a higher risk for a fatal traffic accident than for any other mode of transport. It has been estimated that 440 PTWrider fatalities occur per 100 million person traveling hours, whereas 75 and 25 fatalities for bicyclists and car drivers, respectively, were found over the same period [1]. Notably, cognitive failures on the part of the PTW rider were determined to cause 34% of such accidents [2]. There are indications that full-face motorcycle helmets might deteriorate cognitive performance. The rationale behind this hypothesis is that these helmets are known to i) be excellent thermal insulators [3, 4] with associated warm microclimate temperatures [5], and ii) cause increased levels of carbon dioxide of the order of 2% at low riding velocities [6, 7]. These helmet-mediated effects have been associated with impaired cognitive performance in some studies [8-11], but work on thermal effects also yielded opposite conclusions [12, 13]. The present study aimed at investigating if wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet has a detrimental effect on cognitive performance compared to not wearing headgear in a warm environment, under simulated wind-still conditions.