Mindfulness, Mental Fatigue, Inhibitory Control and Endurance Performance in Athletes

National Taiwan Normal University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Mental Fatigue

Treatments: Behavioral: Control condition; Behavioral: Mental fatigue condition

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05466136

PACNL_JT_MF_Trait

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study investigated the mediating effect of dispositional mindfulness on the impact of mental fatigue on neurocognitive functions and endurance performance in athletes.

Full description

Recent research suggests that mental fatigue by prolonged cognitive tasks would impair neurocognitive functions (e.g., executive functions, brain activity) and sports performance, especially inhibitory control and endurance performance. On the other hand, individuals with higher dispositional mindfulness have been linked to greater athletic performance and cognitive functions. Still, there is little known whether higher dispositional mindfulness counteracts the detrimental effects of mental fatigue on endurance performance and inhibitory control in athletes. Therefore, this study is conducted to investigate whether dispositional mindfulness mediates the effects of mental fatigue on neurocognitive functions and endurance performance in athletes.

The qualified participants will visit the lab on two counterbalanced order occasions to complete either a modified incongruent Stroop task (mental fatigue condition, MF) or a modified congruent Stroop task (control condition, CON) for 30 minutes. Before and after each cognitive task, participants will be measured for their subjective mental fatigue by a visual analog scale (VAS). After each cognitive task, inhibitory control and endurance performance will be evaluated by a Flanker task and a graded exercise test (GXT), respectively. Furthermore, the general and athletic dispositional mindfulness will be measured using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and Athlete Mindfulness Questionnaire (AMQ), respectively.

Specifically, the targeted primary outcomes are neurocognitive functions (i.e., reaction time, accuracy and ERPs in Flanker task) and endurance performance (i.e., VO2max & time to exhaustion in GXT); The secondary outcomes are subjective (i.e., VAS score)/objective (i.e., reaction time, accuracy in Stroop task) mental fatigue, motivation in tasks, mood (i.e., BRUMS-C).

Enrollment: 90 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 25 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Regular sports training at least 4 hours weekly
2. Normal or corrected-to-normal vision
3. Right-handed

Exclusion criteria

1. Physical limitation or injury in lower limbs before and during the study
2. Diagnosed or self-reported neurological disorders (e.g., epilepsy)
3. Diagnosed or self-reported major psychiatric illness (e.g., major depression, schizophrenia)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Screening

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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90 participants in 2 patient groups

Mental fatigue condition

Experimental group

Description:

Performing a completed incongruent version of Stroop task for 30min.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mental fatigue condition

Control condition

Experimental group

Description:

Performing a completed congruent version of Stroop task for 30min.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Control condition