Fatigability may Hinder Your Motivation to Work: a Brain-driven Process!

We go through several activities in life. What is it that decides whether or not an activity which requires work is ‘worth the effort’? The answer lies in the way the brain would process the fluctuating rhythms of fatigue.

The willingness to work is not static and greatly influenced by a process that is not yet well understood – fatigue as per a study at the the University of Birmingham and the University of Oxford, published in the journal Nature Communications.

‘The willingness to work is not static and greatly influenced by a process that is not yet well understood – fatigue. People who experience fatigue are found to have low motivation to work even for a reward.’

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Everybody experiences fatigue at a specific pace of life. Fatigue is defined as the feeling of exhaustion that arises from engaging in effortful tasks. It demands for break from an activity and make us lose motivation.

The study team analyzed 36 young, healthy people on a computer-based task to test how this fatigue impacts a person’s decision to exert effort. The participants underwent almost 200 trials where they had to exert physical effort to obtain different amounts of monetary rewards.

Motivation and Fatigue

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Information about Chronic fatigue syndrome, or yuppie flu, which is a complex disorder, characterized by extreme fatigue, that seems to affect Americans more than AIDS, multiple sclerosis /lung cancer

The activity of the participant’s brain was monitored simultaneously by an MRI scan. It was found that people who had fatigue engaged in low motivation to work even for a reward.

Interestingly, the study revealed two different types of fatigue detected in distinct parts of the brain. One was a short-term feeling of fatigue that could be overcome after a short rest. The other one was a longer-term feeling that slowly builds up and doesn’t fade with short rests. It generally stops people from wanting to work.

Chronic Fatigue - Symptom Evaluation
The causes of chronic fatigue are quite diverse, and vary from simple overexertion to heart disease and cancer.

A specific brain area – frontal cortex was found to have fluctuated activity in line with the predictions. On the contrary, an area called the ventral striatum signaled the level of fatigue that influences people’s motivation to keep working.

“This work provides new ways of studying and understanding fatigue, its effects on the brain, and on why it can change some people’s motivation more than others. This helps begin to get to grips with something that affects many patients lives, as well as people while at work, school, and even elite athletes”, says Dr. Matthew Apps, senior author of the study, based at the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Human Brain Health.

Drugs That Can Make You Feel Tired
Drugs administered to cure a medical condition can cause fatigue. In such cases, consult a doctor who will identify the drug, and replace it or reduce its dose.

Source-Medindia