New research suggesting that muscle fatigue is all in our head could be the first step to unlocking the secret to prolonging exercise and discovering the reasons behind reduced physical performance in other areas.
Neuro-physchologists at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich conducted a series of experiments to determine whether neuronal processes have the ability to reduce muscle activity during exercise.
The findings, which have been published in the European Journal of Neuroscience, revealed that during muscle-fatiguing exercise, nerve impulses in the muscle inhibit the primary motoric area in the brain, similar to the conveying of pain information.
The study is the first of its kind to shift the focus from researching changes in the muscle itself to actually examining the brain.
Participants in the study were asked to perform a series of thigh contractions until they were completely exhausted. They then performed the same exercise under spinal anesthesia, interrupting the signals conveyed between the muscles and brain.
Researchers discovered that the fatigue-related inhibition was significantly lower in the second scenario, and then used functional magnetic resonance imaging to localise activity in the brain.
Two regions in the brain, the thalamus and the insular cortex, exhibited significantly higher levels of activity shortly before participants were unable to continue performing the exercise.
Both areas of the brain are also responsible for analysing information and identifying potential threats to an organism, including the feelings of hunger and pain.
These links finally prove that our ability to endure tiring exercise is also dependent on motivation and willpower.
The research also creates measurable indicators, and a gateway to analysing performance impairments in other areas of medicine and daily clinical practice.
"The findings are an important step in discovering the role the brain plays in muscle fatigue," says lead researcher on the project, and neuropsychologist at the University of Zurich, Dr Kai Lutz.
"Based on these studies, it won't just be possible to develop strategies to optimise muscular performance, but also specifically investigate reasons for reduced muscular performance in various diseases."
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