New Jersey Medical School staff, along with colleagues from the Rocco Ortenzio Center for Neuroimaging, performed brain scans on men and women of different ages, which showed differences in their response to temporary fatigue and no difference in chronic fatigue status. The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.
Researchers collected fatigue data from 43 healthy men and women aged 20 to 63 years. Researchers used a questionnaire to assess chronic fatigue (fatigue level over the past four weeks) or fatigue after performing a cognitively demanding task. They also performed fMRI scans on the participants during the task. This allowed them to look for a relationship between the activation strength of various parts of the brain and the degree of fatigue.
Scientists found no link between chronic fatigue and gender or age. However, the authors found that the elderly reported less temporary fatigue after completing the task. In addition, the role of the mid-frontal regions of the brain changed with age: young people could use these areas to fight fatigue, while older people could not. Despite this, older people became less tired, even with greater brain activation. The more the teenagers’ brains were activated while solving a complex problem, the more fatigued they became, and this effect was more pronounced the younger the participants were.
This study will be the first step towards elucidating the available data on fatigue and its relationship with activity of different brain lobes, gender and age.
Source: Gazeta
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