Athletes with Meditation Experience Counteract the Detrimental Effect of Mental Fatigue on Endurance Performance and Neurocognitive Functions

The current study aimed to examine whether athletes with meditation experience better counteract decline in endurance performance and inhibitory control-relevant neurocognitive functions caused by mental fatigue compared to athletes without meditation experience. Twenty-four athletes with meditation experience (AM) and twenty-five athletes without meditation experience (ANM) were recruited and underwent either a 30-min 100% incongruent Stroop test in mental fatigue condition (MF) or 30-min 100% congruent Stroop test in control condition (CON) in a randomized-counterbalanced order. Subsequently, inhibitory control-relevant neurocognitive functions were assessed using the Flanker task and event-related potentials, followed by endurance performance evaluation using treadmill-based task. Visual analogue scale was used to evaluate perceived mental fatigue (VAS-MF) before (T1), after Stroop test (T2) and after Flanker task (T3), and then VAS for motivation (VAS-M) was also used to evaluate motivation in Flanker task and endurance performance. Results indicated that participants in the MF reported higher VAS-MF score at T2 (p = .001) and T3 (p < .001), and shorter time to exhaustion (p < .001), lower motivation (p = .040) in endurance task, and lower accuracy (p < .001) and smaller N2 amplitude (p = .007) in Flanker task, compared to the CON. Notably, these impairments were more pronounced in ANM, compared to AM. These findings underscore the potential benefits of meditation experience as a countermeasure to mitigate the negative effects of mental fatigue on endurance performance and inhibitory control.