Abstract
Introduction: Mental exertion is a psychophysiological state caused by sustained and prolonged cognitive activity. The understanding of the possible effects of acute mental exertion on physical performance, and their physiological and psychological responses are of great importance for the performance of different occupations, such as military, construction workers, athletes (professional or recreational) or simply practicing regular exercise, since these occupations often combine physical and mental tasks while performing their activities. However, the effects of implementation of a cognitive task on responses to aerobic exercise and sports are poorly understood. Our narrative review aims to provide information on the current research related to the effects of prior acute mental fatigue on physical performance and their physiological and psychological responses associated with exercise and sports.Methods:The literature search was conducted using the databases PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge and PsycInfo using the following terms and their combinations: “mental exertion”, “mental fatigue”, “mental fatigue and performance”, “mental exertion and sports” “mental exertion and exercise”.Results:We concluded that prior acute mental exertion affects effectively the physiological and psychophysiological responses during the cognitive task, and performance in exercise. Conclusion:Additional studies involving prior acute mental exertion, exercise/sports and physical performance still need to be carried out in order to analyze the physiological, psychophysiological and neurophysiological responses subsequently to acute mental exertion in order to identify cardiovascular factors, psychological, neuropsychological associates.
Highlights
Mental exertion is a psychophysiological state caused by sustained and prolonged cognitive activity
Our narrative review aims to provide information on the current research related to the effects of prior acute mental fatigue on physical performance and their physiological and psychological responses associated with exercise and sports
The results demonstrated that performance of the cognitive task increased significantly simple selective attention of reaction time compared to the control condition
Summary
Mental exertion is a psychophysiological state caused by sustained and prolonged cognitive activity. The understanding of the possible effects of acute mental exertion on physical performance, and their physiological and psychological responses are of great importance for the performance of different occupations, such as military, construction workers, athletes (professional or recreational) or practicing regular exercise, since these occupations often combine physical and mental tasks while performing their activities. Understanding the possible effects of mental effort on the motor performance and its associated neuro-psyco-physiological responses is of great importance for the development of different occupations such as the military, construction workers, athletes (professional or recreational) or physical exercise practitioners regular. These individuals often combine to perform mental and physical tasks [4]. Higher elevations in the response of ventilation (VE), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR) were observed when a mental exertion derived from a cognitive task was performed over a continuous exercise at 60% of maximal oxygen (VO2MAX) [4]
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