Judgment performance is significantly reduced when soldiers are mentally fatigued.

 

Even with those that are trained to be super elite, mental fatigue impairs decision making at this high level. The stakes are high, and errors in these groups mean a lot more than a difference in a score board.

Consider for a moment the importance of the decisions soldiers, first responders, emergency department staff, and even pilots make. When it comes to the safety of others, should’nt we be taking a deeper look into how mental fatigue training can potentially protect them from error?

Prior Mental Fatigue Impairs Marksmanship Decision Performance

Key Points:

Marksmanship decision errors significantly increased after soldiers completed the mental fatigue intervention

There was a significant negative correlation between shooting response time and errors of commission (r = −0.61; p = 0.004) when preceded by the mental fatigue intervention, but not the control

Marksmanship judgment performance is significantly reduced when soldiers are mentally fatigued

Purpose: Mental fatigue has been shown to impair subsequent physical performance in continuous and discontinuous exercise. However, its influence on subsequent fine-motor performance in an applied setting (e.g., marksmanship for trained soldiers) is relatively unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether prior mental fatigue influences subsequent marksmanship performance as measured by shooting accuracy and judgment of soldiers in a live-fire scenario.

Methods: Twenty trained infantry soldiers engaged targets after completing either a mental fatigue or control intervention in a repeated measure design. Heart rate variability and the NASA-TLX were used to gauge physiological and subjective effects of the interventions. Target hit proportion, projectile group accuracy, and precision were used to measure marksmanship accuracy. Marksmanship accuracy was assessed by measuring bullet group accuracy (i.e., how close a group of shots are relative to center of mass) and bullet group precision (i.e., how close are each individual shot to each other). Additionally, marksmanship decision accuracy (correctly shooting vs. correctly withholding shot) when engaging targets was used to examine marksmanship performance.

Results: Soldiers rated the mentally fatiguing task (59.88 ± 23.7) as having greater mental workload relative to the control intervention [31.29 ± 12.3, t(19) = 1.72, p < 0.001]. Additionally, soldiers completing the mental fatigue intervention (96.04 ± = 37.1) also had lower time-domain (standard deviation of normal to normal R-R intervals) heart rate variability relative to the control [134.39 ± 47.4, t(18) = 3.59, p < 0.001]. Projectile group accuracy and group precision failed to show differences between interventions [t(19) = 0.98, p = 0.34, t(19) = 0.18, p = 0.87, respectively]. Marksmanship decision errors significantly increased after soldiers completed the mental fatigue intervention (48% ± 22.4) relative to the control intervention [M = 32% ± 79.9, t(19) = 4.39, p < 0.001]. There was a significant negative correlation between shooting response time and errors of commission (r = −0.61; p = 0.004) when preceded by the mental fatigue intervention, but not the control (r = −0.31; p = 0.17).

Conclusion: The mental fatigue intervention was successful in eliciting fatigue which was supported subjectively and objectively. Marksmanship judgment performance is significantly reduced when soldiers are mentally fatigued, although shot accuracy is not.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319600953_Prior_Mental_Fatigue_Impairs_Marksmanship_Decision_Performance

Neurotechnolgy for Sports Performance

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Soma Technologies is neurotechnology specifically designed to increase the capacity of the brain. We train the brain to fatigue and the brain responds by becoming more resilient to both mental and physical fatigue. Mental fatigue impacts our perception of effort which will in turn decrease our mental and physical capacity. The higher our perceived effort, the less access we have to our physical and mental reserves. No matter how well trained or elite we are. This therefore creates a detrimental knock on effect to performance. Additionally, it has also been shown that mental fatigue decreases prefrontal oxygenation which will also limit our capacity. Brain Endurance Training (BET) can alter prefrontal oxygention and give athletes greater cognitive and physical capacity. This is an absolute game changer for human performance and pushing the limits. You could have the best physical prep in the world but if you are not looking at conditioning the brain appropriately, you are leaving a lot on the table.

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