SynthesisBMC psychology2026
Effects of mental fatigue on sport-related reaction-time, technical, and decision-making performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effects of mental fatigue on lower-limb explosive power and anaerobic capacity: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMental fatigue has been proposed to affect sport-related performance, but previous syntheses have often combined heterogeneous outcomes or insufficiently distinguished response speed, technical execution, and decision-making. This review examined the association between experimentally induced mental fatigue and three sport-specific or sport-relevant performance domains: sport-specific reaction-time outcomes, technical performance, and decision-making performance.
methodsThis systematic review and meta-analysis followed PRISMA 2020 guidance and was registered in PROSPERO. Web of Science, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, Embase, and PubMed were searched from inception to 19 January 2026. Eligible studies were experimental studies comparing a mental-fatigue condition with a control or lower cognitive-load condition in healthy participants performing sport-specific or sport-relevant tasks. Hedges' g was calculated so that positive values indicated poorer performance under mental fatigue. Random-effects models were fitted separately for each outcome domain. Risk of bias was assessed using design-specific RoB 2 tools, and certainty of evidence was assessed using GRADE.
resultsNineteen study records contributed 20 study-domain results to the primary meta-analysis. Mental fatigue was associated with poorer sport-specific reaction-time performance (k = 4; g = 0.496, 95% CI 0.171 to 0.822; I² = 47.4%), technical performance (k = 9; g = 0.613, 95% CI 0.411 to 0.815; I² = 86.6%), and decision-making performance (k = 7; g = 0.671, 95% CI 0.546 to 0.796; I² = 9.6%). Sensitivity and dependency analyses generally supported the direction of these findings, although uncertainty was greater for reaction-time outcomes.
conclusionsMental fatigue is associated with poorer sport-related performance, but the evidence differs across domains. Decision-making outcomes showed the most consistent pattern, technical performance showed substantial heterogeneity, and sport-specific reaction-time outcomes were limited by a small evidence base. Future studies should predefine primary sport-performance outcomes, report paired statistics for crossover designs, and distinguish reaction-time, technical, and decision-making outcomes more clearly.
trial registrationPROSPERO CRD420251180776.
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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.