Trial reportPloS one2026
Differential effects of caffeine, acute aerobic exercise, and placebo on mental fatigue.
Trial report in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mental fatigue negatively affects the productivity and health of the general population. Mental fatigue manifests following sustained mental activity and is defined by subjective feelings of inhibition and objective decrements in mental performance. Caffeine is one of the most common stimulants used to mitigate mental fatigue. However, regular caffeine consumption may be associated with several side effects and potential dependence. The efficacy of acute aerobic exercise as an alternative mental fatigue intervention remains ambiguous. Thus, the present study utilized a randomized crossover design to compare the efficacy of the three treatments in mitigating mental fatigue in 26 adult caffeine consumers. The three treatments included: 1) 20 minutes of moderate-intensity cycling, 2) consumption of 2.5 mg/kg of caffeine, and 3) consumption of placebo (0.67 g corn starch). Treatments were administered prior to a mental fatigue-induction task (30-minute Stroop task). Participants and the experimenter were both blinded to the administration of caffeine or placebo. Objective (Psychomotor Vigilance Task) and subjective (visual analog scales) mental fatigue measures were taken prior to and following the mental fatigue-induction task. We hypothesized that in the placebo condition, participants would demonstrate greater mental fatigue following a 30-minute Stroop task relative to baseline. Further, mental fatigue induction will be mitigated in the acute exercise and caffeine consumption conditions to a similar degree. Participants reported significantly greater mental fatigue following a 30-minute Stroop task (p < 0.001, d = -0.735). Comparison of the placebo and caffeine consumption did not exhibit a reliable difference (all p's > 0.05). Contrary to our hypothesis, mental fatigue was not mitigated following acute exercise (p = 0.499). Further investigations are warranted to explore the potential of varying exercise intensities and durations in mitigating mental 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.