Brief Summary

While the scientific community understands quite well why muscles ache after prolonged exercise, the origins of mental fatigue remain totally mysterious. Existing theories remain at a psychological level, with scarce supporting evidence. Mental fatigue typically occurs after long episodes during which humans exert control on motor or cognitive processes, instead of executing routine or stimulus-driven behaviours. However, work organization (especially in risky job like airplane control or medical profession) and pathologies due to an overload of work (like burn-out) seems to be directly linked to neural fatigue. One of the consequences of neural fatigue is to alter decision-making. As an example, the choice between an immediate monetary reward and a larger but delayed monetary reward (the so called intertemporal choices) are susceptible to fatigue state of its underpinning neural network. The investigators are proposing an exploratory study of neural fatigue, induced either in a natural way (by performing cognitive tasks for hours) or by transcranial stimulation, using three main physiological measures (Electro-encephalography to measure neural activity, indirect calorimetry to measure the metabolic cost of a cognitive effort, and pupillometry to measure cognitive effort). This study should allow to better understand the consequences of neural fatigue on cognitive functions like decision making as well as the associated physiological variables.

Trial Health

On Track

Trial Health Score

Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach

Enrollment

216

participants targeted

Target at P75+ for not_applicable

Timeline

Completed

Started May 2016

Longer than P75 for not_applicable

Geographic Reach

1 country

1 active site

Status

completed

Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.

Trial Relationships

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Study Timeline

Key milestones and dates

4.5 years study duration

First Submitted

Initial submission to the registry

March 3, 2016

Completed

26 days until next milestone

First Posted

Study publicly available on registry

March 29, 2016

Completed

2 months until next milestone

Study Start

First participant enrolled

May 23, 2016

Completed

4.3 years until next milestone

Primary Completion

Last participant's last visit for primary outcome

September 1, 2020

Completed

3 months until next milestone

Study Completion

Last participant's last visit for all outcomes

December 1, 2020

Completed

Last Updated

August 26, 2021

Status Verified

August 1, 2021

Enrollment Period

4.3 years

First QC Date

March 3, 2016

Last Update Submit

August 25, 2021

Conditions

Cognitive Fatigue

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

Proportion of chosen immediate reward in intertemporal questions between an immediate reward smaller than a delayed reward.
Several questions between two options (an immediate reward and and a larger delayed reward) will be asked to the participants through a computer. The measure of impulsivity corresponds to the proportion of immediate reward that wil be chosen through the keyboard (left or right arrows).
Day 0
Physiological Measures: EEG
power of electrical brain oscillation.
Day 0
Physiological Measures: indirect calorimetry
volume of O2 consumption and CO2 expulsion.
day 0
Physiological Measures:pupillometry
pupil dilation.
Day 0