ArticlePloS one2022
Tremor, finger and hand dexterity and force steadiness, do not change after mental fatigue in healthy humans.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Approaches to inducing mental fatigue: A systematic review and meta-analysis of (neuro)physiologic indices.Behavior research methods · 2025Pooled it
- Does the Effect of Mental Fatigue Created by Motor Imagery on Upper Extremity Functions Change with Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises? A Randomized, Controlled, Single-Blinded Trial.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Measuring Unintentional Force Drift: Reliability, Number of Trials, and Age-Related Differences.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Acute effect of precise manual tasks on physiological tremor of both upper limbs in young and elderly people.International journal of occupational medicine and environmental health · 2026Article
- Forearm elevation impairs local static handgrip endurance likely through reduction in vascular conductance and perfusion pressure: revisiting Rohmert's curve.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Dexterity assessment of hospital workers: prospective comparative study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Observational
- Neuromuscular behaviour in the first dorsal interosseus following mental fatigue.Experimental physiology · 2024Article
- Mental calculation increases physiological postural tremor, but does not influence physiological goal-directed kinetic tremor.European journal of applied physiology · 2022Article
- Strain Gauge Measuring System for Subsensory Micromotions Analysis as an Element of a Hybrid Human-Machine Interface.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- A plausible link between the time-on-task effect and the sequential task effect.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The effects of mental fatigue have been studied in relation to specific percentages of maximal aerobic or anaerobic efforts, maximal voluntary contractions or the performance of sport specific skills. However, its effects on tremor, dexterity and force steadiness have been only marginally explored. The present work aimed at filling this gap. In twenty-nine young individuals, measurement of postural, kinetic and isometric tremor, pinch force steadiness and finger and hand dexterity were performed before and after either 100 min of mental fatigue or control tasks. During the interventions blood pressure, oxygen saturation and heart rate and perceived effort in continuing the task were recorded every 10 minutes. Tremor was analysed in both time (standard deviation) and frequency domain (position, amplitude and area of the dominant peak) of the acceleration signal. Finger dexterity was assessed by Purdue pegboard test and hand dexterity in terms of contact time in a buzz wire exercise. Force steadiness was quantified as coefficient of variation of the force signal. Postural, kinetic and isometric tremors, force steadiness and dexterity were not affected. Higher oxygen saturation values and higher variability of heart rate and blood pressure were found in the intervention group during the mental fatigue protocol (p < .001). The results provide no evidence that mental fatigue affects the neuromuscular parameters that influence postural, kinetic or isometric tremor, force steadiness and dexterity when measured in single-task conditions. Increased variability in heart rate may suggest that the volunteers in the intervention group altered their alert/stress state. Therefore, it is possible that the alterations that are commonly observed during mental fatigue, and that could have affected tremor, steadiness and dexterity only last for the duration of the cognitive task and are not detectable anymore soon after the mental task is terminated.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.