Fatigue and Human Performance: An Updated Framework

Summary & key facts

This narrative review updates an earlier fatigue framework and proposes a clearer way to think about fatigue during tasks. It defines motor or cognitive task-induced state fatigue as a psychophysiological condition that can show up as a drop in performance and/or a stronger feeling of tiredness. The authors add cognitive fatigue to the taxonomy, list new factors that matter (for example effort perception, mood, self‑regulation, time perception), stress that objective performance decline and subjective feelings are linked, and say many things (age, sex, illness, wakefulness, task type) change how these parts interact. They recommend measuring both performance and perceived fatigue to better s

Key facts:

• The paper defines motor or cognitive task-induced state fatigue as a psychophysiological condition with a decrease in motor or cognitive performance and/or an increased perception of fatigue.
• The review adds two categories to the taxonomy: cognitive performance fatigue and perceived cognitive fatigue.
• The authors keep the distinction that performance fatigability means an objective drop in performance, while perceived fatigability means changes in sensations or feelings that regulate the performer.
• Performance fatigability and perceived fatigability are interdependent; both contribute to the self‑reported symptom called fatigue.
• Body homeostasis (for example wakefulness and core temperature) and modulating factors (for example age, sex, diseases, and task characteristics) influence the relative importance of different fatigue determinants.
• The authors recommend combined monitoring of performance fatigue and perceived fatigue and more research on the mechanisms that link them to understand how the different factors interact.

Topics

Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control Occupational Health and Performance Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue

Categories

Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine Health Sciences Medicine

Tags

Biochemistry Biology Medicine MEDLINE Physical therapy Sports medicine