Effects of mental fatigue

"Effects of mental fatigue induced by a continuous cognitive task on the attention skills of athletes"

Here is a 2008 study published in "Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise": May 2018

Autors: Liu, Jianxiu; Liu, Ruidong; Cao, Chunmei; Ma, Xindong

“Athletes need to maintain a high concentration of attention during training and competition, while mental fatigue could interfere with their focus, response and motor control abilities. ".

GOAL:

The present study aims to explore the effect of mental fatigue on the selective attention and involuntary attention of athletes based on behavioral and ERP evidence. Methods: Thirty elite tennis players (16 men, 14 women) were randomly selected and separated into experience group (EG, n = 15, age 21.08 ± 1.5) and control group (CG, n = 15, age 20.92 ± 1.04).

Athletes in EG were mentally tired after 1 hour of the Flanker task, while athletes in CG relaxed and remained lucid for 1 hour.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV), Behavioral Index and Perceptual Effort Rating (RPE) were measured to detect player mental fatigue during the Flanker task which was divided into 4 periods (each step 15 min).

Selective attention (P3b) and involuntary attention (P3a) were evoked by a new bizarre auditory task before and after the Flanker task.

(Note: The Flanker task is a reaction task that is designed to measure the ability to point visual attention, by inhibiting distracting information. In this task, participants are required to give a quick left or right response to an arrow center, while ignoring accompanying arrows that are congruent (for example, <<<<<) or incongruent (for example, <<> <<). People tend to automatically process distracting information because they are generally slower on incongruent stimuli than on congruent stimuli.)

RESULTS:

The precision of the behavioral data was significantly different in 4 time periods (F = 35.83, p <0.001).

The RPE score was higher in EG than in CG (F = 47.62, p <0.001).

Time domain (rMSSD) and frequency domain (LF, HF and LF / HF) in HRV data showed a significant difference between EG and CG in all time periods.

Such, mental fatigue was induced after the Flanker task.

In the bizarre auditory task, the reaction time was prolonged after induction of fatigue (371.13 ± 100.21 ms vs. 388.07 ± 93.64 ms, t = 4.878, p <0.01).

ERP data showed that after the fatigue-inducing task, P3a (19.290 μV vs 14.836 μV, F = 6.749, p <0.05) significantly decreased, indicating an involuntary impairment in attention.

During this time, the P3b amplitude decreased and the latencies (15.373 μV vs. 12.036 μV, F = 10.451, p <0.05) at the Fz, Cz, and Pz sites increased significantly, indicating that selective attention was altered.

CONCLUSION:

One hour of continuous cognitive task could induce psychological fatigue. Athletes' involuntary attention and selective attention were damaged after mental fatigue.

Another study showing that if you do not train your cerebral and sensory capacities (concentration, fatigue, motivation, vision, etc.) your capacities on "D" day will not be optimal and will be difficult to maintain!

That's why I integrate this training into the training.

Studies in some team sports show that a major decision is made every 0.5 seconds by an athlete.

So if you cannot maintain your concentration for the duration of the competition, your performance will be impaired.