Researchers Seeking Better Measures of Cognitive Fatigue

Long Covid is really not new. It is virtually indistinguishable from the condition long known in the medical lexicon as post-infectious syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Although some have recognized and studied their similarities, it seems no one has made the simplifying observation that they are essentially the same condition.[1]

[1]: https://www.statnews.com/2023/09/14/long-covid-me-cfs-myalgi...

Truth is we are no closer to having a biomarker for fatigue. There is no particular reason why the normal fatigue that people get from working hard has anything to do with the chronic fatigue that ME/CFS and other chronic diseases face. ME/CFS is unique in its payback where a sufferers pushes through the fatigue and ends up with symptoms worsening and new symptoms 12-72 hours later that can last a day to the rest of their lives. That isn't just fatigue and the UK doctors have been trying to make ME/CFS all about fatigue since the 1980s and it caused immense harm. It actually has about 280 symptoms, of which fatigue is just one and not even the most debilitating or important one.

> To better understand fatigue, Pessiglione, Chib and other researchers are trying to bridge an understanding of its biochemical workings with how it affects motivation4. The current hypothesis: cognitive fatigue arises from metabolic changes in parts of the brain that are responsible for cognitive control

This will be interesting to see because for a long time there's been a lot of work saying that "ego depletion" isn't a thing[0] and I swear I have tried to believe this but my own personal experience is completely different. Later in the night, and when I'm mentally tired I do experience this: poor impulse control, lowered emotion regulation, the whole shebang. It'll be interesting to see what the basis is for this, because despite taking all that research at face-value I have to say that now after all these years, I can't help but think it must be wrong.

0: though some have claimed that it is a thing if you believe that it's a thing, i.e. it happens to those who believe in it.

I start to go blind when programming for too long. Does that count?

I wonder when they get tired thinking about the problem, do they get more motivated?

I wrote a little blog post about this. Cognitive fatigue is heavily relied on by the advertising industry as it reduces willpower the most - late night TV and social media both overload the brain and then make you less willing to resist their persuasion, because of the exhaustion. https://dianazink.com/brain-hours.html

One aspect of it might be glucose depletion. I know when I was taking lots of tests at uni I could give myself a boost by eating a honey stick which was recommended by a bio prof. In any case, this looks fairly complex and it will be interesting to see how this goes.

BURN IT!

You are working against yourself in this problem.

To master cognitive capacity is similar to physical labor. There are those who do not resist the efficiency of over achieving and there are those who have no idea what that means.

Rathering a more convenient less exhaustive measure is where you short yourself.

Burn it. Do the work. The exhaustive measures will make you more complete than the banal need which drives you.

Your lazy delegation is the seed of your hypocrisy and it shall blossom into the fatigue of your self reliance.

Only you can bear the terrible burden of free will. And that comes at the cost of your determination to resolve.

I'm sharing this more for folks who might have looked in a lot of places and are still seeking answers.

There has been a lot more science in this area it seems in the last 5 years, maybe it's just me, and the attention to do with long covid, or other things that cross the blood/brain barrier.

It's encouraging to see articles like this, since there is no single measure or signal of this, its really about considering brain health in general, and doing everything that is possible to eliminate neuroinflammation that can be.

The challenge for folks suffering with symptoms that includes a neurological thing like brain fog is the challenge of usually having to be the Quarterback integrating between specialists, because specialists don't necessarily integrate. For someone with cognitive fatigue, since it's differnet for everyone on different tasks, it can be a lot.

It's been eye opening to learn how many specialists first overlook proper neck posture and position since it can have a direct effect on what's getting into/out of the brain and downstream symptoms. Advocating for the basic inputs first before trying things is critical.

Additionally, tools like QEEG and FMRI are promising, not super mainstream yet but appear to have decent information it can provide of what is happening in the brain. In addition to this, the area of neurofeedback (devices like mendi, bellabee, etc seem to have some promise to help in some cases).

Another thing that too often gets missed is first ensuring things are OK physiologically. A simple xray of the neck and where nerves, blood and more go up into the brain is too often a step that's missed, and quite often there might be some compression, tightness or pinches there limiting the brain to recieve what it normally may have - and instead effort is spent trying to figure out how to get the brain operating better with a garden hose that's been slightly pinched.

Fatigue to the extent I understand it neurologically seems to at least two sided dice: energy and nutrition being available when and where it's needed on one side, and the things needed in place to use that energy effectively.

Chronic depletion or deficiencies in certain vitamins, amino acids, etc can also build up over time. Doing what we can for nutrition is critical, including any research backed neuroinflammation reducing supplements (magnesium threonate, saffron, omega 3, tumeric, etc).