The Effects of Mental Fatigue on Physical Performance: A Systematic Review.

Background: Mental fatigue is a psychobiological state caused by prolonged periods of demanding cognitive activity. It has recently been suggested that mental fatigue can affect physical performance. Objective: Our objective was to evaluate the literature on impairment of physical performance due to mental fatigue and to create an overview of the potential factors underlying this effect. \ud Methods: Two electronic databases, PubMed and Web of Science (until 28 April 2016), were searched for studies designed to test whether mental fatigue influenced performance of a physical task or influenced physiological and/or perceptual responses during the physical task. Studies using short (<30 min) self-regulatory depletion tasks were excluded from the review. Results: A total of 11 articles were included, of which six were of strong and five of moderate quality. The general finding was a decline in endurance performance (decreased time to exhaustion and self-selected power output/velocity or increased completion time) associated with a higher than normal perceived exertion. Physiological variables traditionally associated with endurance performance (heart rate, blood lactate, oxygen uptake, cardiac output, maximal aerobic capacity) were unaffected by mental fatigue. Maximal strength, power, and anaerobic work were not affected by mental fatigue. Conclusion: The duration and intensity of the physical task appear to be important factors in the decrease in physical performance due to mental fatigue. The most important factor responsible for the negative impact of mental fatigue on endurance performance is a higher perceived exertion

Towards a general framework for including noise impacts in LCA

Industrial Ecolog

Guidelines for Reporting Core Information from Community Noise Reaction Surveys

Difficulties in comparing the results from studies have interfered with accumulating knowledge about communities' responses to noise. Gaps in the information presented in publications have been especially serious problems for combined social and acoustical surveys of residents' responses to environmental noise. In an attempt to alleviate this problem an ICBEN team. Community Response to Noise, recommends the guidelines in this article for reporting on combined social/acoustical surveys of residents' reactions to noise. A table lists guidelines for information on 18 topics for publications of three levels of detail. The guidelines were developed in three years of correspondence with acoustical and social sciences experts from 12 countries. These guidelines are supported by the 11 members of the ICBEN noise team and the 26 experts listed in the article.Griffith Sciences, Griffith School of EnvironmentNo Full Tex