Mental fatigue impairs visuomotor response time in badminton players and controls

Purpose: It has recently been reported that professional road cyclists have superior inhibitory control and resistance to mental fatigue compared to recreational cyclists. We sought to assess whether badminton players also have superior executive functions and whether they are more resistant to mental fatigue than controls on a visuomotor task. Methods: Eleven healthy controls (mean +/- SD; age: 25 +/- 4y; 6 females, 5 males) and nine healthy badminton players (age: 23 +/- 3y; 4 females, 5 males) performed two experimental trials in a randomized crossover order. Participants completed a baseline visuomotor task, followed by a Flanker task. Next, they performed either a 90-min Stroop task (MF) or watched a 90-min documentary (CON). Immediately thereafter, the Flanker task and the visuomotor task were completed again. Multiple physiological and psychological measures were assessed during the protocol. Results: Badminton players' and controls' accuracy during the Stroop task decreased over time (p = 0.023). Subjectively, both groups perceived the Stroop task as more mentally demanding than the documentary (p < 0.001). In addition, higher mental fatigue was perceived in MF compared to CON, independently from group (p = 0.029). In the visuomotor task, controls as well as badminton players reacted significantly slower to the complex stimuli when mentally fatigued (similar to 7%; p < 0.001). Badminton players (1109 +/- 251 ms) outperformed controls (1299 +/- 227 ms; p = 0.022) in the visuomotor task. However, this was not the case in the Stroop and Flanker task; in terms of accuracy and response time, badminton players and controls performed similarly. Conclusion: These findings provide evidence that badminton players have better visuomotor response time than controls. However, they do not seem to be more resistant to the negative effects of mental fatigue on open skill-visuomotor performance. Furthermore, our study suggests that cognitive tasks with a larger motor component, such as our visuomotor task, are more sensitive to the negative effects of mental fatigue than traditional cognitive tasks (e.g. Flanker task) that have a very small motor component.