The effect of physical fatigue on cognitive performance

Many studies in the literature have investigated the effects of exercise on cognition. Most of the studies were carried out with the elderly, individuals with disease, and a small number of them with athletes. The participant group of this study consists of badminton athletes, and the main purpose is to examine the effects of physical fatigue created by acute aerobic exercise on cognitive performance. Eleven well-trained volunteers (8 boys, 3 girls, mean age 14, mean height 166.09) participated in this study. The 2-back cognitive performances of the participants (before, immediately after the interventions, after 15 minutes, and after 30 minutes) were evaluated in two different sessions, both in the exercise condition (20 m shuttle run) and the control condition (documentary viewing). At the planned time intervals throughout the sessions, the perceived difficulty levels of the participants were measured using the Borg scale and their moods were measured using the BRUMS scale. As a result of the study, there was no statistical significance in 2-back cognitive performances in both exercise and control conditions. A statistically significant change was observed in the perceived difficulty level, fatigue and vigor values between conditions. This shows that although the perceived difficulty level, fatigue and vigor show a gradual deterioration depending on the mental workload applied together with the stress created by the exercise, cognitive tasks can be maintained at all time intervals for 30 minutes. As a result, it is thought that athletes have a sustainable cognitive endurance against physical fatigue.