Mindfulness, Mental Fatigue, Inhibitory Control and Endurance Performance in Athletes

NCT ID: NCT05466136

Last Updated: 2023-06-06

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 90 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-04-20
• Study Completion Date: 2022-10-31

Brief Summary

This study investigated the mediating effect of dispositional mindfulness on the impact of mental fatigue on neurocognitive functions and endurance performance in athletes.

Detailed Description

Recent research suggests that mental fatigue by prolonged cognitive tasks would impair neurocognitive functions (e.g., executive functions, brain activity) and sports performance, especially inhibitory control and endurance performance. On the other hand, individuals with higher dispositional mindfulness have been linked to greater athletic performance and cognitive functions. Still, there is little known whether higher dispositional mindfulness counteracts the detrimental effects of mental fatigue on endurance performance and inhibitory control in athletes. Therefore, this study is conducted to investigate whether dispositional mindfulness mediates the effects of mental fatigue on neurocognitive functions and endurance performance in athletes.

The qualified participants will visit the lab on two counterbalanced order occasions to complete either a modified incongruent Stroop task (mental fatigue condition, MF) or a modified congruent Stroop task (control condition, CON) for 30 minutes. Before and after each cognitive task, participants will be measured for their subjective mental fatigue by a visual analog scale (VAS). After each cognitive task, inhibitory control and endurance performance will be evaluated by a Flanker task and a graded exercise test (GXT), respectively. Furthermore, the general and athletic dispositional mindfulness will be measured using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and Athlete Mindfulness Questionnaire (AMQ), respectively.

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 in GXT); The secondary outcomes are subjective (i.e., VAS score)/objective (i.e., reaction time, accuracy in Stroop task) mental fatigue, motivation in tasks, mood (i.e., BRUMS-C).

Conditions

Mental Fatigue

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Primary Study Purpose: SCREENING
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Mental fatigue condition

Performing a completed incongruent version of Stroop task for 30min.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Mental fatigue condition

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

In mental fatigue condition, the mental fatigue manipulation will use a modified Stroop task with complete incongruent trials, which is wildly used to induce a mentally fatigued state in previous studies. The Stroop task included four colored words presented in traditional Chinese (i.e., red, green, blue, and yellow), the color of the word will paint inconsistent with the semantic meaning of the word (e.g., red word printed in green). The task consisted of five 6-minute blocks and 1080 incongruent trials for each block. The total duration will be 30-min.

Control condition

Performing a completed congruent version of Stroop task for 30min.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Control condition

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Similar to mental fatigue conditions, the modified Stroop task with complete congruent trials will be used, The Stroop task also included four colored words presented in traditional Chinese (i.e., red, green, blue, and yellow), but the color of the word will paint consistent with the semantic meaning of the word (e.g., red word printed in red) in order to set up the match condition of relative less cognitive demanding for participants. Same with the mental fatigue condition, the task consisted of five 6-minute blocks and 1080 congruent trials for each block. The total duration will be 30-min.

Interventions

Mental fatigue condition

In mental fatigue condition, the mental fatigue manipulation will use a modified Stroop task with complete incongruent trials, which is wildly used to induce a mentally fatigued state in previous studies. The Stroop task included four colored words presented in traditional Chinese (i.e., red, green, blue, and yellow), the color of the word will paint inconsistent with the semantic meaning of the word (e.g., red word printed in green). The task consisted of five 6-minute blocks and 1080 incongruent trials for each block. The total duration will be 30-min.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Control condition

Similar to mental fatigue conditions, the modified Stroop task with complete congruent trials will be used, The Stroop task also included four colored words presented in traditional Chinese (i.e., red, green, blue, and yellow), but the color of the word will paint consistent with the semantic meaning of the word (e.g., red word printed in red) in order to set up the match condition of relative less cognitive demanding for participants. Same with the mental fatigue condition, the task consisted of five 6-minute blocks and 1080 congruent trials for each block. The total duration will be 30-min.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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)

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 25 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Taiwan Normal University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Yu-Kai Chang, Ph.D

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University

Locations

Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University

Taipei, , Taiwan

Countries

Taiwan

Other Identifiers

PACNL_JT_MF_Trait

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id