The Role of the Brain in Mental and Physical Fatigue
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2025-03-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The goal of this clinical trial is to determine the role of brain neurotransmission in the
onset of fatigue, identify the brain areas involved, and determine how brain activity and
neuromuscular efficiency changes during onset of fatigue. Three different experimental
studies (physical fatigue, mental fatigue and combined) will be performed with a randomized,
single-blinded, placebo controlled, counter-balanced, cross-over design.
The objectives of the projects are as follows:
- To experimentally assess the role of a dopamine, and a noradrenalin reuptake inhibitor
in the onset of exercise-induced fatigue
- To identify changes in brain activation associated with altered PF and fatigue
perception
- To experimentally assess the effect of a NA or DA reuptake inhibitor on MF, brain
activation and the sources of changes in brain activation
- To experimentally assess the role of brain neurotransmitters (DA, NA) in the interaction
between mental and PF from a neurophysiological perspective.
Participants will be healthy young adults. In each study, they will start with a
familiarization trial followed by two experimental trials and one control trial with a
randomized treatment order. At each visit, different drugs will be administered to elicit
different neurotransmitter response. The trials will be performed at the MFYS exercise lab
(BLITS, VUB campus Etterbeek, Boulevard General Jaques 271, 1050 Elsene (Brussels)).
Depending on the type of study they are participating in, participants will perform three
distinct tasks:
- In the first experimental study participants will perform a 60-min Stroop Task to elicit
mental fatigue.
- In the second experimental study participants will perform a knee-extension exercise
until exhaustion to elicit physical fatigue.
- In third experimental study participants will first preform a mental fatiguing task
(Stroop taks) followed by physical fatigue task (knee extension).
While participants will perform above mentioned task their EEG signal and heart rate will be
measured. At the same time, participants will report on their subjective feeling of fatigue
during these tasks. In addition, all participants will be administered cognitive tasks before
and after the study, along with questionnaires. In the second and third experiments,
tensiomyography and electromyography will also be recorded from the quadriceps muscle of the
leg used for knee extension.
Researchers will compare physiological and behavioural changes in response to specific
neurotransmitter drug to answer the main question: what the role of a DA and a NA reuptake
inhibitor on the onset of mental and physical fatigue is.