ReviewBrain communications2025
Mapping the brain's fatigue network: a transdiagnostic systematic review and meta-analysis on functional correlates of mental fatigue.
Review in Brain communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 12 papers.
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
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cognitive fatigue is related to reduced cerebral perfusion and sustained attention in patients with post COVID-19 condition: An fMRI study.Neuroimage. Reports · 2026Article
- Dissociating Fatigue and Fatigability in Multiple Sclerosis: The Role of Cognitive Processing Speed.European journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Eight-year longitudinal changes in functional connectivity of the fatigue network in Parkinson's disease: evidence from four timepoints.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Article
- Resting state brain connectivity of pain and fatigue is affected by performance of a fatiguing attention task in patients with chronic pain.Neuroimage. Reports · 2026Article
- Errors or Adaptations? A Critical Review of Predictive Processing in Psychiatry.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Neurovascular and synaptic milieu of brain-resident cells in cognitive dysfunction of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Brain connectivity and its relation to cognitive function in patients with post-COVID 19 condition after mild infection.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Distinct functional connectivity patterns in myalgic encephalomyelitis and long COVID patients during cognitive fatigue: a 7 Tesla task-fMRI study.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Article
- Linking movement-related beta oscillations to cortical excitability, structural damage, and fatigue in multiple sclerosis.Brain communications · 2026Article
- A neuroscientific explanation for the learning effects attributed to Teaching Games for Understanding in physical education and sport coaching practices.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Review
- Peripheral Blood Transcriptomic Features Distinguishing Postpartum Depression from Major Depressive Disorder and Healthy Postpartum Controls.International journal of women's health · 2026Article
- Post-COVID fatigue disproportionately affects women: evidence from the DEFEAT Corona cohort.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mental fatigue is a significant psychopathological symptom that has recently gained attention, particularly in chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis and Post-COVID-19 condition. However, fatigue is a clinically relevant symptom across a wide range of mental and neurological disorders. To identify a transdiagnostic functional network associated with fatigue, we conducted an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. The primary inclusion criterion was studies involving any medical condition where patients exhibited significantly higher levels of fatigue compared to healthy controls. A systematic literature review across three major scientific databases identified 46 eligible neuroimaging studies, including a total of 2603 individuals. The meta-analysis of these studies revealed a widespread cortical-subcortical network involving frontal, limbic, basal ganglia and parietal structures. Three main clusters were highlighted: a frontal-striatal-limbic cluster, a frontal-cingulate cluster and a parietal cluster, with regions implicated in cognitive, emotional and somatosensory symptoms associated with mental fatigue. Quality analysis indicated a moderate risk of bias in the majority of the included studies. Overall, our findings provide scientific evidence for a transdiagnostic mental fatigue network in the brain, with key nodes located in the lateral frontal cortex, cingulate cortex, insula, thalamus, precuneus and caudate. These results support the theory of thalamic-striatal-cortical dysfunction, which may impair compensatory mechanisms related to mental fatigue. Additionally, abnormal activation of limbic and parietal regions may contribute to cognitive, emotional and attentional impairments linked to fatigue.
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.