Can Creatine Combat the Mental Fatigue-associated Decrease in Visuomotor Skills?
VAN Cutsem J, Roelands B, Pluym B, Tassignon B, Verschueren JO, DE Pauw K, Meeusen R
Medicine and science in sports and exercise · 46 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Randomized controlled trial (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Funding not disclosed
Publication
- Published
- 2019-08-09 · Med Sci Sports Exerc · vol. 52 · issue 1 · pp. 120–130
- Publisher
- Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- Cited
- 86 citations · more than 95% of similar papers · 4.3× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 43 works
- Access
- Paywalled
- Research areas
- Muscle metabolism and nutrition · Sports Performance and Training · Cardiovascular and exercise physiology
- Keywords
- Stroop effect, Psychomotor learning, Creatine, Psychology, Physical therapy, Crossover study, Physical medicine and rehabilitation, Medicine, Cognition, Placebo, Audiology, Internal medicine, Neuroscience
- MeSH
- humans, creatine, exercise test, hand strength, cross-over studies, double-blind method, mental fatigue, motivation, cognition, task performance and analysis, motor skills, physical endurance, dietary supplements, adult, female, male, young adult, stroop test
7 authors
From BE
- Jeroen Van CutsemVrije Universiteit Brussel
- Bart RoelandsVrije Universiteit Brussel
- Bert PluymVrije Universiteit Brussel
- Bruno TassignonVrije Universiteit Brussel
- Jo VerschuerenVrije Universiteit Brussel
- Kevin De PauwVrije Universiteit Brussel
Abstract
Purpose
The importance of the brain in sports was recently confirmed by the negative effect of mental fatigue (MF) on sport-specific psychomotor skills. Creatine supplementation improves strength but can also improve cognitive functioning. To explore the role of creatine in combating MF, we evaluated whether creatine supplementation counteracts the MF-associated impairment in sport-specific psychomotor skills.
Methods
In 23°C, 14 healthy participants (4 females, 10 males; mean ± SD, age = 24 ± 3 yr, mass = 74 ± 13 kg, height = 179 ± 9 cm) performed a 90-min mentally fatiguing task (counterbalanced, crossover, and double-blinded; i.e., Stroop task) in two different conditions: after a 7-d creatine supplementation (CR; 20 g·d) and after a 7-d calcium lactate supplementation (placebo [PLAC]), separated by a 5-wk washout. In both conditions, a 7-min sport-specific visuomotor task, a dynamic handgrip strength endurance task, and a 3-min Flanker task was performed before and after the mentally fatiguing task. Physiological and perceptual responses were measured throughout the protocol.
Results
Handgrip strength endurance was higher in CR compared with PLAC (P = 0.022). MF impaired visuomotor response time (+4.4%; P = 0.022) and Flanker accuracy (-5.0%; P = 0.009) in both conditions. Accuracy on the Stroop task was higher in CR compared with PLAC (+4.9%; P = 0.026). Within the perceptual and physiological parameters, only motivation and vigor (P ≤ 0.027) were lower in CR compared with PLAC.
Conclusion
Creatine supplementation improved physical (strength endurance) and prolonged cognitive (Stroop accuracy) performance, yet it did not combat MF-induced impairments in short sport-specific psychomotor or cognitive (Flanker) performance. These results warrant further investigation in the potential role of creatine in combating the MF-associated decrements in prolonged (e.g., 90-min soccer game) sport performance and suggest a role of brain phosphocreatine in MF.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher.
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