Does mental fatigue impair physical performance? A replication study.
The aim of this study is to replicate the hypothesis that mental fatigue impairs physical performance in a pre-registered (https://osf.io/wqkap/) within-subjects experiment. 30 recreationally active adults completed a time-to-exhaustion test (TTE) at 80% VO2max in two separate sessions, after completing a mental fatigue task or watching a documentary for 90 min. We measured power output, heart rate, (session) rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and subjective mental fatigue. Bayes factor analyses revealed extreme evidence supporting the alternative hypothesis that the mental fatigue task was more mentally fatiguing than the control task, BF01 = 0.009. However, we found moderate-to-strong evidence for the null hypothesis (i.e., no evidence of reduced performance) for average time in TTE (BF01 = 9.762) and anecdotal evidence for the null hypothesis in (session) RPE (BF01 = 2.902) and heart rate (BF01 = 2.587). Our data seem to challenge the idea that mental fatigue has a negative influence on exercise performance. Although we did succeed at manipulating subjective mental fatigue, this did not impair physical performance. However, we cannot discard the possibility that mental fatigue may have a negative influence under conditions not explored here, e.g., individualizing mentally fatiguing tasks. In sum, further research is warranted to determine the role of mental fatigue on exercise and sport performance.
['Holgado|Darías|D|https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3211-8006', 'Troya|Esther|E|https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3708-7405', 'Perales|José C|JC|https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5163-8811', 'Vadillo|Miguel A|MA|https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8421-816X', 'Sanabria|Daniel|D|https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4164-7607']
D000328:Adult D054874:Athletic Performance D001499:Bayes Theorem D005080:Exercise Test D005260:Female D006339:Heart Rate D006801:Humans D008297:Male D005222:Mental Fatigue D009042:Motivation D010465:Perception D005082:Physical Exertion D000076604:Physical Functional Performance D015203:Reproducibility of Results D013997:Time Factors D055815:Young Adult
fatigue Cognition endurance neuroscience psychology