Mindfulness Training, Mental Fatigue, Endurance Performance and Neurocognitive Functions

National Taiwan Normal University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Neurocognitive Function; Mental Fatigue; Mindfulness Training; Sports Performance

Treatments: Behavioral: Mindfulness intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05452460

PACNL_JT_MF_Intervention

Details and patient eligibility

About

Mental fatigue has been suggested that would impair neurocognitive functions and sports performance. On the other hand, mindfulness training (MT) seems to as a promising approach to attenuate mental fatigue and counteract its detrimental effect on cognitive functions and sports performance. The purpose of the present study is to examine the effect of MT on behavioral and neuroelectric indices of inhibitory control, and endurance performance in mentally fatigued athletes.

Full description

Accumulating research indicates that mental fatigue induced by prolonged cognitive tasks would impair neurocognitive functions and sports performance. Additionally, recent studies demonstrate that inhibitory control and endurance performance are significantly susceptible to detrimental effects of mental fatigue. On the other hand, mindfulness training (MT) has been widely been used to enhance cognitive functions and sports performance in neurocognitive and sports research, which has been considered a promising approach for attenuating mental fatigue and counteracting the detrimental effect of mental fatigue. However, the effect of MT on inhibitory control, endurance performance, and underlying mechanisms in mentally fatigued athletes remain unclear.

Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to examine the effect of MT on behavioral and neuroelectric indices of inhibitory control, and endurance performance in mentally fatigued athletes.

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); The secondary outcomes are changes in dispositional mindfulness, subjective (i.e., scores in visual analog scale)/objective (i.e., reaction time, accuracy in Stroop task) mental fatigue, motivation in tasks, and changes in mood state (i.e., BRUMS-C).

Enrollment: 53 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)
4. Major previous experience with mindfulness training

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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53 participants in 2 patient groups

Mindfulness training group

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the mindfulness training (MT) group will engage in a 60-min session of mindfulness program per week for 8 weeks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mindfulness intervention

Waitlist control group

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in the waitlist control group will be required to maintain regular life and routine training. Once the participants in control group finished the whole experiment, they will be invited to participate in the MBPP program for eight weeks.