Department of Physical Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1919 W Taylor Street, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA.
Exp Brain Res. 2023 Jan;241(1):13-30. doi: 10.1007/s00221-022-06464-x. Epub 2022 Nov 3.
The relationship between cognitive demands and postural control is controversial. Mental fatigue paradigms investigate the attentional requirements of postural control by assessing balance after a prolonged cognitive task. However, a majority of mental fatigue research has focused on cognition and sports performance, leaving balance relatively underexamined. The purpose of this paper was to systematically review the existing literature on mental fatigue and balance control. We conducted a comprehensive search on PubMed and Web of Science databases for studies comparing balance performance pre- to post-mental fatigue or between a mental fatigue and control group. The literature search resulted in ten relevant studies including both volitional (n = 7) and reactive (n = 3) balance measures. Mental fatigue was induced by various cognitive tasks which were completed for 20-90 min prior to balance assessment. Mental fatigue affected both volitional and reactive balance, resulting in increased postural sway, decreased accuracy on volitional tasks, delayed responses to perturbations, and less effective balance recovery responses. These effects could have been mediated by the depletion of attentional resources or impaired sensorimotor perception which delayed appropriate balance-correcting responses. However, the current literature is limited by the number of studies and heterogeneous mental fatigue induction methods. Future studies are needed to confirm these postulations and examine the effects of mental fatigue on different populations and postural tasks. This line of research could be clinically relevant to improve safety in occupational settings where individuals complete extremely long durations of cognitive tasks and for the development of effective fall-assessment and fall-prevention paradigms.
认知需求与姿势控制之间的关系存在争议。精神疲劳范式通过评估长时间认知任务后的平衡来研究姿势控制的注意力要求。然而，大多数精神疲劳研究都集中在认知和运动表现上，相对忽略了平衡。本文的目的是系统地回顾关于精神疲劳和平衡控制的现有文献。我们在 PubMed 和 Web of Science 数据库中进行了全面搜索，以查找比较精神疲劳前后或精神疲劳组与对照组之间平衡表现的研究。文献检索共得到 10 项相关研究，包括自愿性（n=7）和反应性（n=3）平衡测量。通过各种认知任务诱导精神疲劳，这些任务在平衡评估前完成 20-90 分钟。精神疲劳会影响自愿性和反应性平衡，导致姿势摆动增加、自愿性任务准确性降低、对干扰的反应延迟以及平衡恢复反应效果降低。这些影响可能是由于注意力资源的消耗或感觉运动感知受损，从而延迟了适当的平衡校正反应。然而，目前的文献受到研究数量和精神疲劳诱导方法的异质性的限制。需要进一步的研究来证实这些假设，并研究精神疲劳对不同人群和姿势任务的影响。这项研究可能与改善在职业环境中个体完成极长时间认知任务的安全性以及开发有效的跌倒评估和预防范式有关。
