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This is an article about fatigue in athletes. It has been shown that eight minutes of arm exercise (hand cycling), followed by a cycling test six minutes later resulted in 38% poorer performance than without the arm exercise. Yet, when tested with electrical stimulation, the legs responded as normal.
http://www.runnersworld.com/sweat-science/the-mystery-of-nonlocal-fatigue
The article in the Runners World Magazine concluded:
Primary article:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26272315
Electrical stimulation does not really replicate an exercise task, as the cardiovascular demands for example are not matched. We can conclude that the neurolgical response in the leg muscles is not inhibited. But it does not necessarily follow that the lack of performance is only due to (mental) sensory perception.
This is a case of: pay attention to what you are directly measuring and try to avoid leaps of logic.
It is quite possible that the hypothesised "central fatigue" in this case may be mediated by cardiovascular feedback effects limiting performance peripherally during sustained exercise, despite receiving the same neurological input.
Lastly, it would be foolish to assume that those other feedback mechanisms that are limiting performance can or should be ignored. Those mechanisms exist for a reason.
http://www.runnersworld.com/sweat-science/the-mystery-of-nonlocal-fatigue
The article in the Runners World Magazine concluded:
Instead, the best predictor of when the subjects would give up was their level of perceived effort, which reached the same level in both trials at the moment of exhaustion. Somehow, the effects of arm cycling lingered and influenced the overall perception of fatigue during the leg trial—which, of course, raises an even bigger question: what is effort? In this case, the study focused specifically on the sense of discomfort in the legs and breathing, but there’s plenty of debate about what contributes to the sensation of effort and how it should be defined.
Primary article:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26272315
Electrical stimulation does not really replicate an exercise task, as the cardiovascular demands for example are not matched. We can conclude that the neurolgical response in the leg muscles is not inhibited. But it does not necessarily follow that the lack of performance is only due to (mental) sensory perception.
This is a case of: pay attention to what you are directly measuring and try to avoid leaps of logic.
It is quite possible that the hypothesised "central fatigue" in this case may be mediated by cardiovascular feedback effects limiting performance peripherally during sustained exercise, despite receiving the same neurological input.
Lastly, it would be foolish to assume that those other feedback mechanisms that are limiting performance can or should be ignored. Those mechanisms exist for a reason.