Functional neuroimaging correlates of mental fatigue induced by cognition among chronic fatigue syndrome patients and controls.

Full Abstract

The neural mechanisms underlying feelings of fatigue are poorly understood. The primary purpose of the study was to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine the association between feelings of mental fatigue and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) brain responses during a mentally fatiguing cognitive task. Healthy, non-fatigued controls and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients were included to determine the influence of chronic levels of fatigue on brain responses. We hypothesized that mental fatigue would be significantly related to brain activity during a fatiguing cognitive task but not during either a non-fatiguing motor (finger tapping) or cognitive (auditory monitoring) task. Patients (n=9) and controls (n=11) completed a finger tapping task, a simple auditory monitoring task and a challenging working memory task, designed to induce mental fatigue, while undergoing fMRI. Fatigue was measured prior to scanning and following each task during fMRI data collection. Results showed that mental fatigue was significantly related to brain activity during the fatiguing cognitive task but not the finger tapping or simple auditory monitoring tasks. Significant (p< or =0.005) positive relationships were found for cerebellar, temporal, cingulate and frontal regions. A significant (p=0.001) negative relationship was found for the left posterior parietal cortex. CFS participants did not differ from controls for either finger tapping or auditory monitoring tasks, but exhibited significantly greater activity in several cortical and subcortical regions during the fatiguing cognitive task. Our results suggest an association between subjective feelings of mental fatigue and brain responses during fatiguing cognition.

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Author information

Author/s: Cook, Dane B (DB); O'Connor, Patrick J (PJ); Lange, Gudrun (G); Steffener, Jason (J);

Affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs-William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI 53706, USA. dcook@education.wisc.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: NeuroImage (Neuroimage), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-May; vol 36 (issue 1) : pp 108-22

Dates: Created 2007/04/30; Completed 2007/08/01;

PMID: 17408973, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Arousal - physiology
Attention - physiology
Awareness - physiology
Brain - physiopathology
Cerebellum - physiopathology
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic - physiopathology
Female
Frontal Lobe - physiopathology
Gyrus Cinguli - physiology
Hippocampus - physiopathology
Humans

Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Memory, Short-Term
Mental Fatigue - physiopathology
Middle Aged
Motor Activity - physiology
Parietal Lobe - physiology
Problem Solving - physiology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Semantics
Speech Perception - physiology
Temporal Lobe - physiology

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