Highlighting the Role of Mental Fatigue as a Health Risk Factor: A Narrative Review

Mental fatigue is a psychobiological state induced by sustained effortful cognitive efforts during daily life activities. Yet research efforts in exercise science have focused primarily on performance implications for athletes to the point of exclusion of vulnerable populations for which mental fatigue may be a health risk. This narrative review aims to clarify the role of mental fatigue on population health. Evidence suggest mental fatigue predisposes people to acute events related to temporary performance impairments (e.g., falls), and chronic diseases related to sedentarism (e.g., stroke, diabetes), as mental fatigue de-motivates people to engage in physical activity. Major risks are experienced by people with higher fatigability (i.e., people for whom mental fatigue is induced by less effortful tasks) and lower performance capacity. However, the few available information about moderators of fatigability and the lack of a normative protocol to assess mental fatigue are limiting the prevention of mental fatigue. Several strategies are used to counter mental fatigue acutely (e.g., caffeine ingestion); however, enduring countermeasures intended to alter psychobiological sequelae of mental fatigue, such as Brain Endurance and other trainings, are the only proved long-term countermeasures for mental fatigue. Yet the effectiveness of these interventions should be tested in populations with major risk for mental fatigue. We present a model identifying putative pathways through which mental fatigue may contribute to health risks to guide future investigations seeking to (a) evaluate the role of mental fatigue as a threat to health and well-being and (b) design interventions to mitigate the effects of mental fatigue in vulnerable populations.