Follow UK Immigration and UK Technological Development: A recent study on mental fatigue has found that excessive mental exertion can reduce endurance and decrease stamina during physical exercise. Even when our bodies still have energy reserves, excessive mental exertion can prevent us from continuing to exercise.
Currently, many research results show that moderate exercise can improve cognitive ability, but excessive exercise can make it impossible for people to think clearly in the short term due to extreme fatigue. Conversely, scientists have not paid enough attention to the question of whether excessive thinking can impair people's physical athletic ability.
A group of scientists from the University of Kent in the UK and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research decided to fill this gap. They recently conducted research on this issue and published their experimental results. In a research report published in May, the group of scientists had participants perform a series of mentally demanding computer games and then evaluated their physical activity performance after the games.
To test the impact of mental fatigue on physical performance, the scientists recruited 10 healthy young male test subjects to participate in a series of activities at the laboratory over several sessions. During each visit to the laboratory for testing, the scientists monitored their physical fatigue levels using instruments.
In one part of the experiment, subjects were asked to sit in front of a computer for 90 minutes and consciously watch individual letters flashing on the screen; they were required to press certain keys every time four letters flashed by. This test is a known experiment that can effectively induce mental fatigue. In another experiment, they were asked to watch a 90-minute peaceful and quiet documentary titled "Earth".
The experimental results showed that mental fatigue significantly affected the physical endurance of the subjects. In the subsequent physical activities, the subjects who watched the flashing letters were more prone to fatigue than those who watched the peaceful documentary.
Simply put, when our brains are fatigued, physical exercise becomes more difficult. Physiologically, the muscles remain active, but we are forced to stop exercising prematurely due to mental fatigue.
The research results have many practical applications, and people can use them to better combine mental and physical exercise. For example, if you have an important sports competition or training session to attend in the morning, you should not try to complete your tax returns on the same morning, because excessive thinking can impair physical performance.
At the same time, "training our brains to reduce mental fatigue" may be an untapped method to improve physical performance. However, this possibility remains to be verified. Dr. Leper, one of the researchers at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, said that so far, the compelling conclusion their experiment can provide is: "Our feelings do not always accurately reflect our actual physical condition. Perhaps many times, our bodies are stronger than we feel mentally."
