School of Nursing, University of Rochester, United States; Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, United States.
William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI, United States.
J Psychosom Res. 2014 Jun;76(6):458-64. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2014.04.001. Epub 2014 Apr 16.
Mental fatigability refers to the failure to sustain participation in tasks requiring mental effort. Older adults with vascular risk are at particular risk for experiencing mental fatigability. The present study (1) tested a new way of measuring objective mental fatigability by examining its association with perceived mental fatigability; and (2) identified associated psychological, physiological, and situational predictors.
A cross-sectional study was conducted with 49 community-dwelling participants aged 75+ years with vascular risk. A 20-minute fatigability-manipulation task was used to induce mental fatigability and develop objective and perceived mental fatigability measures. Objective fatigability was calculated by the change of reaction time over the course of the task. Perceived fatigability was calculated by the change of fatigue self-reported before and after the task. A set of potential psychological, physiological, and situational predictors were measured.
There was a significant increase in reaction time and self-reported fatigue to the fatigability manipulation task, indicating occurrence of objective and perceived mental fatigability. Reaction time and self-reported fatigue were moderately, but significantly correlated. Higher levels of executive control and having a history of more frequently engaging in mental activities were associated with lower objective mental fatigability. None of the examined factors were associated with perceived mental fatigability.
Objective and perceived mental fatigability were sensitive to our fatigability-manipulation task. While these two measures were correlated, they were not associated with the same factors. These findings need to be validated in studies with a more heterogeneous sample and a greater variety of fatigability-manipulation tasks.
精神疲劳是指无法持续参与需要脑力的任务。有血管风险的老年人尤其容易出现精神疲劳。本研究（1）通过检验与感知精神疲劳相关的方法来测试测量客观精神疲劳的新方法；（2）确定相关的心理、生理和情境预测因素。
本研究为横断面研究，纳入了 49 名有血管风险的 75 岁以上社区居住的参与者。使用 20 分钟疲劳操作任务来诱导精神疲劳，并开发客观和感知精神疲劳的测量方法。客观疲劳度通过任务过程中反应时间的变化来计算。感知疲劳度通过任务前后疲劳自我报告的变化来计算。同时测量了一系列潜在的心理、生理和情境预测因素。
疲劳操作任务导致反应时间和自我报告疲劳显著增加，表明发生了客观和感知的精神疲劳。反应时间和自我报告疲劳之间呈中度但显著相关。较高的执行控制水平和更频繁地从事精神活动的历史与较低的客观精神疲劳相关。未发现任何因素与感知精神疲劳相关。
客观和感知精神疲劳对我们的疲劳操作任务敏感。虽然这两种测量方法相关，但它们与不同的因素相关。这些发现需要在具有更多样化样本和更多疲劳操作任务的研究中进行验证。
