Can Creatine Combat the Mental Fatigue-associated Decrease in Visuomotor Skills?
Van Cutsem J, et al
Published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
Methodology
Counterbalanced, double-blind crossover trial at 23 degrees C; 7 days of creatine 20 g/day versus 7 days of calcium lactate placebo with a 5-week washout; a 7-minute sport-specific visuomotor task, dynamic handgrip strength endurance task and 3-minute Flanker task performed before and after a 90-minute Stroop mental fatigue task, with physiological and perceptual responses recorded throughout.
Key Findings
14 healthy adults (10 men, 4 women, mean age 24) completed a 90-minute mentally fatiguing Stroop task twice in a double-blind crossover: once after 7 days of creatine at 20 g/day and once after 7 days of calcium lactate placebo, separated by a 5-week washout. Mental fatigue impaired visuomotor response time (+4.4%, p = 0.022) and Flanker accuracy (-5.0%, p = 0.009) equally in both conditions, so creatine did not protect sport-specific psychomotor skills. Creatine did improve dynamic handgrip strength endurance (p = 0.022) and accuracy on the prolonged Stroop task (+4.9%, p = 0.026), while motivation and vigour were rated lower on creatine.
Conclusions
Creatine supplementation improved physical and prolonged cognitive performance, yet it did not combat mental-fatigue-induced impairments in short sport-specific psychomotor or cognitive performance.
Limitations
Only 14 participants in a laboratory crossover, with multiple outcomes tested and no correction, so the isolated positive findings may be chance; results in healthy young adults doing computer tasks may not transfer to real sport.
Supplements Studied
Creatine supplementation improved physical (strength endurance) and prolonged cognitive (Stroop accuracy) performance, yet it did not combat MF-induced impairments.
Related Health Concerns
Study Details
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