Research ReportNeural effect of mental fatigue on physical fatigue: A magnetoencephalography study

•We tried to clarify the neural effect of mental fatigue on physical fatigue.•In the right anterior cingulate cortex, alpha-band event-related synchronization was identified.•We demonstrated that mental fatigue causes suppression of the right anterior cingulate cortex during physical fatigue.

We sought to clarify the neural effect of mental fatigue on physical fatigue using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and classical conditioning techniques. Eleven right-handed volunteers participated in this study. On the first day, participants performed fatigue-inducing maximum handgrip trials for 10 min; metronome sounds were started 5 min after the beginning of the trials. We used metronome sounds as conditioned stimuli and maximum handgrip trials as unconditioned stimuli to cause physical fatigue. On the next day, MEG recordings during the imagery of maximum grips of the right hand guided by the metronome sounds were performed for 10 min just before (control session) and after (mental fatigue session) a 30-min fatigue-inducing mental task session. In the right anterior cingulate cortex (Brodmann's area 23), the alpha-band event-related synchronization of the mental fatigue session relative to the control session within the time window of 500-600 ms after the onset of handgrip cue sounds was identified. We demonstrated that mental fatigue suppresses activities in the right anterior cingulate cortex during physical fatigue.