Abstract
This article presents an integrative model of effortful control, a resource-limited top-down control mechanism involved in mental tasks and physical exercises. Based on recent findings in the fields of neuroscience, social psychology and cognitive psychology, this model posits the intrinsic costs related to a weakening of the connectivity of neural networks underpinning effortful control as the main cause of mental fatigue in long and high-demanding tasks. In this framework, effort reflects three different inter-related aspects of the same construct. First, effort is a mechanism comprising a limited number of interconnected processing units that integrate information regarding the task constraints and subject’s state. Second, effort is the main output of this mechanism, namely, the effort signal that modulates neuronal activity in brain regions involved in the current task to select pertinent information. Third, effort is a feeling that emerges in awareness during effortful tasks and reflects the costs associated with goal-directed behavior. Finally, the model opens new avenues for research investigating effortful control at the behavioral and neurophysiological levels.
Highlights
Effort is used to explain a large variety of phenomena, it is very difficult to find a clear definition of this concept (Massin, 2017)
We focus on three endogenous molecules that dysregulate the rate of production of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) within the cytoplasm of pyramidal neurons and deteriorate the capacity of prefrontal cortical columns to synchronously generate an oscillatory control signal
Subjective scales measuring effort, the pre-ejection period and pupil dilation could load on a first factor named ‘‘effort’’, whereas subjective scales measuring mental fatigue, and connectivity between the Salience Network and the CEN with fMRI could load on a second factor named ‘‘mental fatigue’’
Summary
This article presents an integrative model of effortful control, a resource-limited top-down control mechanism involved in mental tasks and physical exercises. Based on recent findings in the fields of neuroscience, social psychology and cognitive psychology, this model posits the intrinsic costs related to a weakening of the connectivity of neural networks underpinning effortful control as the main cause of mental fatigue in long and high-demanding tasks. In this framework, effort reflects three different interrelated aspects of the same construct.
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