Neural mechanisms underlying the effects of physical fatigue on effort-based choice (2020) Hogan et al

Physical fatigue crucially influences our decisions to partake in effortful action. However, there is a limited understanding of how fatigue impacts effort-based decision-making at the level of brain and behavior. We use functional magnetic resonance imaging to record markers of brain activity while human participants engage in uncertain choices for prospective physical effort, before and after bouts of exertion. Using computational modeling of choice behavior we find that fatiguing exertions cause participants to increase their subjective cost of effort, compared to a baseline/rested state. We describe a mechanism by which signals related to motor cortical state in premotor cortex influence effort value computations, instantiated by insula, thereby increasing an individual’s subjective valuation of prospective physical effort while fatigued. Our findings provide a neurobiological account of how information about bodily state modulates decisions to engage in physical activity.

Open Access: nature communications

Popular article: Got fatigue? Study further pinpoints brain regions that may control it

 

A possibly relevant discussion on defining fatigue on this thread:

https://www.s4me.info/threads/sympt...for-us-2020-wilshire-et-al.16482/#post-283689

 

It would be more interesting, of course, to have a mechanism underlying fatique itself.

 

Now that I've skimmed the two links it looks very much like this has nothing to do with what people with ME experience but fatigue in normal healthy individuals. Could have missed something here I suppose. But it doesn't seem relevant to the type of 'fatigue' (a not very accurate word really) that is experienced with ME.