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Can Creatine Combat the Mental Fatigue-associated Decrease in Visuomotor Skills?

Medicine and science in sports and exercise
January 1, 2020
Jeroen VAN Cutsem et al. (7 authors)
Journal ArticleRandomized Controlled TrialHuman StudyClinical
Study Details

Study Goal

The researchers aimed to evaluate whether calcium lactate supplementation (as a placebo) could serve as a control in assessing the effects of creatine supplementation on mental fatigue and sport-specific psychomotor skills.

Results Summary

Calcium lactate was used as a placebo and showed no significant effects compared to creatine supplementation, which improved strength endurance and cognitive performance. The study did not focus on calcium's efficacy or safety.

Population

14 healthy participants (4 females, 10 males; mean age 24 ± 3 years).

Effective Dosage

Not specified for calcium lactate (used as placebo).

Duration

7 days.

Interactions

None mentioned.

Extracted Claims (11)
InterventionDirectionEndpointPopulationDosageImpactClaim #
creatine supplementation
increase
strength
-
-
improves
#1
creatine supplementation
increase
cognitive functioning
-
-
improves
#2
creatine supplementation
increase
Handgrip strength endurance
14 healthy participants
-
was higher
#3
mental fatigue
increase
visuomotor response time
14 healthy participants
+4.4%
impaired
#4
mental fatigue
decrease
Flanker accuracy
14 healthy participants
-5.0%
impaired
#5
creatine supplementation
increase
Accuracy on the Stroop task
14 healthy participants
+4.9%
was higher
#6
creatine supplementation
decrease
motivation and vigor
14 healthy participants
-
were lower
#7
creatine supplementation
increase
physical (strength endurance) performance
14 healthy participants
-
improved
#8
creatine supplementation
increase
prolonged cognitive (Stroop accuracy) performance
14 healthy participants
-
improved
#9
creatine supplementation
no change
MF-induced impairments in short sport-specific psychomotor performance
14 healthy participants
-
did not combat
#10
creatine supplementation
no change
MF-induced impairments in cognitive (Flanker) performance
14 healthy participants
-
did not combat
#11
Abstract

PURPOSE: The importance of the brain in sports was recently confirmed by the negative effect of mental fatigue (MF) on sport-specific psychomotor skills. Creatine supplementation improves strength but can also improve cognitive functioning. To explore the role of creatine in combating MF, we evaluated whether creatine supplementation counteracts the MF-associated impairment in sport-specific psychomotor skills. METHODS: In 23°C, 14 healthy participants (4 females, 10 males; mean ± SD, age = 24 ± 3 yr, mass = 74 ± 13 kg, height = 179 ± 9 cm) performed a 90-min mentally fatiguing task (counterbalanced, crossover, and double-blinded; i.e., Stroop task) in two different conditions: after a 7-d creatine supplementation (CR; 20 g·d) and after a 7-d calcium lactate supplementation (placebo [PLAC]), separated by a 5-wk washout. In both conditions, a 7-min sport-specific visuomotor task, a dynamic handgrip strength endurance task, and a 3-min Flanker task was performed before and after the mentally fatiguing task. Physiological and perceptual responses were measured throughout the protocol. RESULTS: Handgrip strength endurance was higher in CR compared with PLAC (P = 0.022). MF impaired visuomotor response time (+4.4%; P = 0.022) and Flanker accuracy (-5.0%; P = 0.009) in both conditions. Accuracy on the Stroop task was higher in CR compared with PLAC (+4.9%; P = 0.026). Within the perceptual and physiological parameters, only motivation and vigor (P ≤ 0.027) were lower in CR compared with PLAC. CONCLUSION: Creatine supplementation improved physical (strength endurance) and prolonged cognitive (Stroop accuracy) performance, yet it did not combat MF-induced impairments in short sport-specific psychomotor or cognitive (Flanker) performance. These results warrant further investigation in the potential role of creatine in combating the MF-associated decrements in prolonged (e.g., 90-min soccer game) sport performance and suggest a role of brain phosphocreatine in MF.

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
AdultCognitionCreatineCross-Over StudiesDietary SupplementsDouble-Blind MethodExercise TestFemaleHand StrengthHumansMaleMental FatigueMotivationMotor SkillsPhysical EnduranceStroop TestTask Performance and AnalysisYoung Adult
Study Links
Quality Scores
SafetyNot Assessed
Efficacy50/10
Quality85/10
Citation Metrics
Total Citations41
Citations/Year8.2
Relative Citation Ratio4.59
NIH Percentile92%
Research Impact Scores
APT Score0.75
Weight Score2.66
Normalized Score0.57
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