The effect of mental and muscle fatigue on spatial working memory

Fatigue is a gradual and cumulative process. This mindset is related to the lack of motivation to make any effort, as well as decreased efficiency, attentiveness, and, eventually, malfunction.

The present study aims to investigate how mental and muscle fatigue affects spatial working memory.

The research method was quasi-experimental and was performed using the pretest-posttest design. The participants in this study were 20 to 30 year old male students of Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran in 2021, of whom, 14 subjects were selected by convincing method as the sample using the G-Power approach and previous investigations. The Mental Fatigue Self-Assessment Scale, Corsi Block software, Stroop software, and the Monark Bike Ergometer were utilized. In addition, the repeated measurement analysis of variance test in SPSS-23 was used to analyze the data. 

The results indicated that mental fatigue condition had a significant effect on working memory (P=0.002); and has reduced the efficiency of working memory. But muscle fatigue conditions had no significant effect on assessing working memory, and in these conditions there was a better performance in working memory (P=0.065).

The findings of this study emphasize the importance of mental fatigue in reducing working memory performance, even though this type of fatigue is related to cognitive and cerebral functioning. Accordingly, the findings are in line with a top-down approach, as well as cognitive perspectives such as generalized motor program theory.