Psychophysiological and neurobiological processes underlying cognitive fatigue effects in executive functions

精神疲劳的影响对人类福祉有很大的影响，并具有很大的社会关联性。这项拟议的项目研究疲劳效应背后的心理生理过程，重点放在去甲肾上腺素系统上。根据前人的研究结果和不同的理论概念，假设在精神疲劳时，去甲肾上腺素系统只影响/调节执行控制加工级联中的特定子过程。很可能，去甲肾上腺素(NE)系统的调节效应只有在反应被控制或选择的时间点才明显，而精神疲劳改变了这种调节效应。这个问题在研究执行功能和认知控制的两个主要方面，即认知灵活性和抑制性控制的拟议研究项目中得到了解决。心理生理学(EEG)数据将被收集、分析并与瞳孔直径数据整合，作为健康参与者和慢性疲劳综合征(CFS)患者的NE系统的替代。检查CFS是因为它提供了对极端条件下被调查的心理生理学机制的洞察。纳入中心样本增加了拟议项目的社会相关性。因此，该项目取得的成果不仅对这一领域的基础研究具有重要意义，而且对越来越多的CFS患者也具有重要意义。

Effects of mental fatigue have a strong impact on human well-being and are of large societal relevance. The proposed project examines psychophysiological processes underlying fatigability effects with a focus on the norepinephrine system. On the basis of previous empirical findings and different theoretical concepts it is hypothesized that the norepinephrine system only affects/modulates specific subprocesses in the executive control processing cascade during mental fatigue. Likely, modulatory effects of the norepinephrine (NE) system are only evident at time points where responses are being controlled or selected and mental fatigue alters this modulatory effect. This question is addressed in the proposed research project examining two major aspects of executive functions and cognitive control; i.e. cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. Psychophysiological (EEG) data will be collected, analyzed and integrated with pupil diameter data as a proxy of the NE system in healthy participants and patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). CFS is examined because it provides insights into the investigated psychophysiological mechanisms in an extreme condition. The inclusion of a CFS sample increases the societal relevance of the proposed project. Results obtained in this project are therefore not only central for basic research in this area, but also for the increasing number of people suffering under CFS.