Concurrent cognitive task may improve motor work performance and reduce muscle fatigue

Abstract

Performance of certain cognitive tasks either during physical load or in rest pauses between boosts might lead to slowing of muscle fatigue and fatigue related decline in performance. Seventeen right-handed healthy volunteers (age 24±1.4, 8 males) participated in this study, aiming to investigate the effect of the level of the cognitive information processing -1) passive perception of audio stimuli, 2) active stimuli discrimination, 3) active stimuli discrimination following motor response -on motor task performance (handgrip test 30% and 7% of MVC) and muscle fatigue development. Cognitive tasks show the following effects on motor work: i) Perceived fatigue during 30 % MVC (fatiguing) condition developed slower if participant pressed button in response to deviant acoustic stimuli, as compared to passive listening. Counting task, an active task without motor component, took the intermediate position and did not differ significantly from two other cognitive tasks. ii) MVC after 30% MVC (fatiguing) condition tended to decrease stronger when accompanied with passive listening in comparison with both active tasks. iii) Motor task performance during 30% MVC (fatiguing) condition was better for active cognitive task with motor component than for passive task. Active task without motor component took the intermediate position and did not differ significantly from both the other cognitive tasks.

Influence of cognitive load on the dynamics of neurophysiological adjustments during fatiguing exercise

“…However, in these three studies, endurance performance was unchanged compared to a simple mental‐math task condition. In the present study, the 1‐back condition did not induce a distraction effect (i.e., performance improvement by diverting subject’s attentional focus from pain/fatigue perceptions), as observed in some studies (Cruz‐Montecinos et al, ; Evstigneeva et al, ). In addition to its nonself‐regulated nature, our task may thus be more demanding in the context of CMDT as compared to a simple mental‐math task.…”

“…Contemporary research showed that the addition of a cognitive task to a motor task impaired endurance time (Keller-Ross et al, 2014;Mehta & Agnew, 2012;Pereira et al, 2015;Yoon et al, 2009). In contrast, other research found preserved (Shortz & Mehta, 2017;Vanden Noven et al, 2014) or even increased (Cruz-Montecinos et al, 2018;Evstigneeva, Aleksandrov, Mathiassen, & Lyskov, 2012) endurance time when motor task was realized concomitantly to a cognitive task. Such discrepancies may be related to the complexity of the cognitive task (i.e., level of difficulty or self-regulated cognitive task) as well as the nature of the motor task (i.e., muscle involved, contraction intensity, sustained vs. intermittent contraction), which certainly influences the extent of changes in endurance time.…”

Interventions to Mitigate Fatigue Induced by Physical Work: A Systematic Review of Research Quality and Levels of Evidence for Intervention Efficacy

“…Four high-quality CCTs provided moderate evidence for the positive effect of task variation in reducing fatigue of the upper extremities or the whole body. Three studies (Evstigneeva, Aleksandrov, Mathiassen, & Lyskov, 2012; Luger, Bosch, Hoozemans, Veeger, & de Looze, 2016; Mathiassen, Hallman, Lyskov, & Hygge, 2014) that involved subjective ratings showed promising results. One study (Luger, Bosch, Hoozemans, de Looze, & Veeger, 2015) provided evidence of no effect based on the median frequency and amplitude of EMG.…”

Mismatch Negativity Affects Muscle Fatigue during Repeated Contraction Trials of Different Durations

“…The positive influence of sustained vocal encouragement, motivational self-talk, motivational music and video on the power output during the maximal effort exercising (St. Clair Gibson and Noakes, 2004 ; Barwood et al, 2009 , 2015 ) suggests the involvement of motivation and effort perception in regulation of maximal force output under different environmental conditions. Evstigneeva et al ( 2012 ) reported that the button pressing in response to the rare deviant acoustic stimuli during the fatiguing task (sustained submaximal contraction) resulted in improved motor task performance, compared to the passive listening task.…”

“…It was also shown that diversity and variation of muscle load alleviated fatigue caused by sustained or monotonous repetitive work (Mathiassen, 2006 ). The performance of a cognitive task (auditory choice reaction task) simultaneously with a fatiguing motor task (sustained submaximal contraction) results in improved performance of the motor task in comparison with the passive listening task (Evstigneeva et al, 2012 ). We can assume that at least some of these processes are associated with attention.…”