How Does Your Brain Process Feelings of Fatigue?

The findings may advance physical performance in the future,
researchers suggest.
By Elizabeth Millard
Sep 17, 2020

fatigue
Lakota Gambill
* A recent study, published in Nature Communications, found that
fatigue may be in your head, at least partially.
* Researchers found that people tended to avoid risk when it came to
powering through, even when tired.
* In this future, this research may lead to developing cognitive
strategies that could change how perceive effort is perceived,
possibly making efforts feel less fatiguing.
__________________________________________________________________

Whether you’re inside on the treadmill or outside for a long run,
that dreaded moment where you hit the wall—the one where you just can’t
seem to power through—feels the same.

As it turns out, a part of that fatigue may be all in your head. And
knowing exactly where it occurs in the brain could drive
performance-boosting therapies in the future, according to a recent
study in Nature Communications.

Researchers recruited 20 study participants and asked them to grasp and
squeeze a sensor repeatedly, varying their level of effort from minimal
to maximum force. Using data from MRI scans and computer modeling, they
found that feelings of fatigue seem to arise from the motor cortex—the
area of the brain responsible for controlling movement—according to
study co-author Vikram Chib, Ph.D., assistant professor of
biomedical engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine.

As an additional measure to determine how this affects the brain’s
function, researchers offered participants two choices for continuing.
One was considered more “risky,” setting the amount of effort based on
a coin flip that offered the chance to exert either no effort or a
predetermined effort level. The “safe” choice was just the
predetermined level.

By introducing uncertainty, researchers were able to see how much each
participant valued their effort. That offered insight into whether
people would choose to power through, even when fatigued.
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“Unsurprisingly, we found that people tend to be more risk-averse to
avoid effort,” Chib told Bicycling. All but one of the participants
chose the safe option, and scans indicated that for everyone, the motor
cortex was deactivated during the decision-making process.
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Chib said this falls in line with previous studies indicating that when
people become fatigued, motor cortex activity declines, which can
lead to fewer signals being sent down to the muscles, leading to a
reduction in power during a hill workout, for example.

Will these findings lead to hacking the motor cortex so bonking becomes
a thing of the past? Not quite yet, but it’s also not impossible.

“We think we might be able to use noninvasive brain stimulation to make
motor cortex activity align with an individual’s expectations of
performance,” said Chib. “Another thing we might be able to do is
introduce cognitive strategies that could get people to change how they
perceive effort, and this might influence motor cortical activity
and make efforts feel less fatiguing.”

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From: Bicycling US
Elizabeth Millard Elizabeth Millard is a freelance writer focusing
on health, wellness, fitness, and food.
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