EEG correlates of fatigue during administration of a neuropsychological test battery

Abstract

Objective Mental fatigue, a poorly understood symptom of sports-related concussion, ideally requires assessment across multiple modalities. Our study aimed to examine mental fatigue effects among ten neurologically normal, athletically active students undergoing typical concussion testing. It is our intention to ultimately address the question whether fatigue effects due to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) may become confounded with fatigue effects due to testing effort. Methods Fourteen athletically active and neurologically normal volunteers were initially recruited from Penn State University. Self-reported fatigue, neuropsychological performance, and electroencephalographic (EEG) activity were measured throughout the whole testing duration. EEG measures in frequency domain (e.g., relative power of theta, alpha & beta bands) were examined over the course of neuropsychological (NP) test administration. Results Predicted fatigue effects over the course of testing included: (a) increased self-reported fatigue; (b) increased errors on the Stroop Interference Test; (c) significantly increased relative power of theta activity during the Stroop Interference Test in frontal-central and parietal regions; and (d) migration of alpha activation from the occipital to anterior (left parietal and pre-central) regions during the Stroop Interference task administered at the beginning compared with the end of testing. Conclusions Results supported predictions related to subjective fatigue and cognitive performance and offered partial support for predictions related to EEG activation patterns over the course of administering the NP testing. Significance Neurologically intact and athletically active college students demonstrate effects related to fatigue after undergoing a typical sports concussion assessment battery, including an increase in subjectively experienced fatigue, a decrease in cognitive task performance accuracy and associated modulations in EEG activity. This finding should be considered by clinical practitioners while evaluating the symptoms of concussion and making a decision regarding the return-to-sport participation.

Effect of mental fatigue on the central nervous system: an electroencephalography study

“…This finding is consistent with the results of the previous studies, in which fatigue was caused by performing a monotonous simulation driving task [24] or Stroop neuropsychological test [25] for 90 min without any break: In these studies, the theta power density on the frontal EEG electrode site was increased after the mental fatigue-inducing task trials. It has been reported that the theta power density is positively related to sleepiness [26,27].…”

Resting-state theta-band connectivity and verbal memory in schizophrenia and in the high-risk state

“…This finding is consistent with previous research implicating theta-band oscillations in neurocognitive deficits (Wichniak et al, 2014) or cognitive fatigue (Barwick et al, 2012) in general, and in mnemonic operations in particular: Successful memory encoding has been associated with changes in theta-band oscillatory power along a specific time course (Guderian et al, 2009;Long et al, 2014;Osipova et al, 2006;Sederberg et al, 2006), and theta-band oscillations are sensitive to factors affecting memory performance such as processing depth, contextual manipulations and cognitive load (Guderian et al, 2009;Hanslmayr and Staudigl, 2014;Sederberg et al, 2006). Moreover, it has been suggested that mnemonic operations might be dependent on precise modulations of theta-band synchronization within widely distributed brain networks (Burke et al, 2013;Fell and Axmacher, 2011;Sato and Yamaguchi, 2007;Summerfield and Mangels, 2005).…”

The Effects of Mental Fatigue on Physical Performance: A Systematic Review

“…The greater elicited attention and cognitive engagement rather suggests that the experimental task was more mentally demanding. EEG measures that have repeatedly been associated with the occurrence of mental fatigue are increases in frontal and in frontal, central and parietal -power [47,48,8,49]. Moreover, if one considers the continuous change of a measure as a criterion in order to assign it to the development of mental fatigue, the increase in frontal power seems to be the most valid measure of mental fatigue according to the data reported by Wascher et al [8] and Trejo et al [49].…”