Abstract
BackgroundFatigue has a multi-factorial nature. We examined the effects of two types of mental fatigue on spontaneous oscillatory brain activity using magnetoencephalography (MEG).MethodsParticipants were randomly assigned to two groups in a single-blinded, crossover fashion to perform two types of mental fatigue-inducing experiments. Each experiment consisted of a 30-min fatigue-inducing 0- or 2-back test session and two evaluation sessions performed just before and after the fatigue-inducing mental task session.ResultsAfter the 0-back test, decreased alpha power was indicated in the right angular gyrus and increased levels in the left middle and superior temporal gyrus, left postcentral gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, and right medial frontal gyrus. After the 2-back test, decreased alpha power was indicated in the right middle and superior frontal gyrus and increased levels in the left inferior parietal and superior parietal lobules, right parahippocampal gyrus, right uncus, left postcentral gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and right inferior frontal gyrus. For beta power, increased power following the 0-back test was indicated in the left middle temporal gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus, left cingulate gyrus, and left precentral gyrus. After the 2-back test, decreased power was suggested in the left superior frontal gyrus and increased levels in the left middle temporal gyrus and left inferior parietal lobule. Some of these brain regions might be associated with task performance during the fatigue-inducing trials.ConclusionsTwo types of mental fatigue may produce different alterations of the spontaneous oscillatory MEG activities. Our findings would provide new perspectives on the neural mechanisms underlying mental fatigue.
Highlights
IntroductionWe examined the effects of two types of mental fatigue on spontaneous oscillatory brain activity using magnetoencephalography (MEG)
After the 0-back test, decreased power was shown in the right angular gyrus [Brodmann’s (BA) area 39] and increased levels were shown in the left middle temporal gyrus (BA 21), left superior temporal gyrus (BA 41), left postcentral gyrus (BAs 2 and 3), right superior frontal gyrus (BA 6), left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 47), and right medial frontal gyrus (BA 10)
After the 2-back test, decreased power was shown in the right middle frontal gyrus (BAs 8 and 46) and right superior frontal gyrus (BAs 6 and 9) and increased levels were shown in the left inferior parietal lobule (BA 39), left superior parietal lobule (BA 7), right parahippocampal gyrus (BA 36), right uncus
Summary
We examined the effects of two types of mental fatigue on spontaneous oscillatory brain activity using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Little is known about the neural mechanisms of mental fatigue related to the performance. As a fatigue-inducing mental task session, participants performed 0- or 2-back test trials for 30 min. The advantage of using these tasks is in their ability to cause two types of mental fatigue: After both 0-back and 2-back test sessions, impairment of task performance assessed by the percentage of correct task trials was significant, while longer reaction times and a higher subjective level of sleepiness could be identified only after the 0-back test trials. Since mental fatigue is multi-faceted [11], using two types of mental tasks might reveal different facets
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