SynthesisSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2023
Pharmacological Blockade of Muscle Afferents and Perception of Effort: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Role of Muscle Mass in Endurance Performance and Neuromuscular Fatigue: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Pooled it
- Rating of perceived exertion in continuous sports: a scoping review with evidence gap map.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- Trial
- Positive effects of functional electrical stimulation-assisted cycling on perception of effort, cerebral blood flow, and cognition in post-stroke patients.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Trial
- Activation of skeletal muscle mechanoreceptors and nociceptors reduces the exercise performance of the contralateral homologous muscles.American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology · 2024Trial
- Dietary interventions interact with the perception of effort and enhance endurance performance: a brief narrative review.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2026Review
- Altered Skeletal Muscle Phosphate Metabolism After Muscle Damage Is Associated With Elevated Effort Perception During Exercise in Humans.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2026Article
- Increasing the cognitive demand of upper-limb psychomotor tasks increases the perception of effort.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Effort and its perception revisited: How physical-domain insights could lead toward a unified theory.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- Perception of effort decreases with motor sequence learning.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The effects of body hydration on perceptual responses during blood flow restriction exercise.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Enhancing endurance performance with combined imagined and actual physical practice.European journal of applied physiology · 2024Article
- Rating of Perceived Exertion: A Large Cross-Sectional Study Defining Intensity Levels for Individual Physical Activity Recommendations.Sports medicine - open · 2024Article
- Acute hypoalgesic, neurophysiological and perceptual responses to low-load blood flow restriction exercise and high-load resistance exercise.Experimental physiology · 2024Article
- Article
- The role of clinical neurophysiology in the definition and assessment of fatigue and fatigability.Clinical neurophysiology practice · 2024Review
- Differential control of respiratory frequency and tidal volume during exercise.European journal of applied physiology · 2023Review
- Ventilation and perceived exertion are sensitive to changes in exercise tolerance: arm+leg cycling vs. leg cycling.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe perception of effort provides information on task difficulty and influences physical exercise regulation and human behavior. This perception differs from other-exercise related perceptions such as pain. There is no consensus on the role of group III/IV muscle afferents as a signal processed by the brain to generate the perception of effort.
objectiveThe aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the effect of pharmacologically blocking muscle afferents on the perception of effort.
methodsSix databases were searched to identify studies measuring the ratings of perceived effort during physical exercise, with and without pharmacological blockade of muscle afferents. Articles were coded based on the operational measurement used to distinguish studies in which perception of effort was assessed specifically (effort dissociated) or as a composite experience including other exercise-related perceptions (effort not dissociated). Articles that did not provide enough information for coding were assigned to the unclear group.
resultsThe effort dissociated group (n = 6) demonstrated a slight increase in ratings of perceived effort with reduced muscle afferent feedback (standard mean change raw, 0.39; 95% confidence interval 0.13-0.64). The group effort not dissociated (n = 2) did not reveal conclusive results (standard mean change raw, - 0.29; 95% confidence interval - 2.39 to 1.8). The group unclear (n = 8) revealed a slight ratings of perceived effort decrease with reduced muscle afferent feedback (standard mean change raw, - 0.27; 95% confidence interval - 0.50 to - 0.04).
conclusionsThe heterogeneity in results between groups reveals that the inclusion of perceptions other than effort in its rating influences the ratings of perceived effort reported by the participants. The absence of decreased ratings of perceived effort in the effort dissociated group suggests that muscle afferent feedback is not a sensory signal for the perception of effort.
Indexed as
Identifiers
36318384What 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.