TY - JOUR
T1 - The effects of a mid-task break on the brain connectome in healthy participants
T2 - A resting-state functional MRI study
AU - Sun, Yu
AU - Lim, Julian
AU - Dai, Zhongxiang
AU - Wong, Kian Foong
AU - Taya, Fumihiko
AU - Chen, Yu
AU - Li, Junhua
AU - Thakor, Nitish
AU - Bezerianos, Anastasios
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the National University of Singapore for supporting the Cognitive Engineering Group at the Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology (SINAPSE) under Grant R-719-001-102-232. This work was also partially supported by the Ministry of Education of Singapore under the Grant MOE2014-T2-1-115. We acknowledge the assistance of Mrs. Tay Wei Zheng and Mrs. Zhuo Wang for data collection.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2017/5/15
Y1 - 2017/5/15
N2 - Although rest breaks are commonly administered as a countermeasure to reduce mental fatigue and boost cognitive performance, the effects of taking a break on behavior are not consistent. Moreover, our understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms of rest breaks and how they modulate mental fatigue is still rudimentary. In this study, we investigated the effects of receiving a rest break on the topological properties of brain connectivity networks via a two-session experimental paradigm, in which one session comprised four successive blocks of a mentally demanding visual selective attention task (No-rest session), whereas the other contained a rest break between the second and third task blocks (Rest session). Functional brain networks were constructed using resting-state functional MRI data recorded from 20 healthy adults before and after the performance of the task blocks. Behaviorally, subjects displayed robust time-on-task (TOT) declines, as reflected by increasingly slower reaction time as the test progressed and lower post-task self-reported ratings of engagement. However, we did not find a significant effect on task performance due to administering a mid-task break. Compared to pre-task measurements, post-task functional brain networks demonstrated an overall decrease of optimal small-world properties together with lower global efficiency. Specifically, we found TOT-related reduced nodal efficiency in brain regions that mainly resided in the subcortical areas. More interestingly, a significant block-by-session interaction was revealed in local efficiency, attributing to a significant post-task decline in No-rest session and a preserved local efficiency when a mid-task break opportunity was introduced in the Rest session. Taken together, these findings augment our understanding of how the resting brain reorganizes following the accumulation of prolonged task, suggest dissociable processes between the neural mechanisms of fatigue and recovery, and provide some of the first quantitative insights into the cognitive neuroscience of work and rest.
AB - Although rest breaks are commonly administered as a countermeasure to reduce mental fatigue and boost cognitive performance, the effects of taking a break on behavior are not consistent. Moreover, our understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms of rest breaks and how they modulate mental fatigue is still rudimentary. In this study, we investigated the effects of receiving a rest break on the topological properties of brain connectivity networks via a two-session experimental paradigm, in which one session comprised four successive blocks of a mentally demanding visual selective attention task (No-rest session), whereas the other contained a rest break between the second and third task blocks (Rest session). Functional brain networks were constructed using resting-state functional MRI data recorded from 20 healthy adults before and after the performance of the task blocks. Behaviorally, subjects displayed robust time-on-task (TOT) declines, as reflected by increasingly slower reaction time as the test progressed and lower post-task self-reported ratings of engagement. However, we did not find a significant effect on task performance due to administering a mid-task break. Compared to pre-task measurements, post-task functional brain networks demonstrated an overall decrease of optimal small-world properties together with lower global efficiency. Specifically, we found TOT-related reduced nodal efficiency in brain regions that mainly resided in the subcortical areas. More interestingly, a significant block-by-session interaction was revealed in local efficiency, attributing to a significant post-task decline in No-rest session and a preserved local efficiency when a mid-task break opportunity was introduced in the Rest session. Taken together, these findings augment our understanding of how the resting brain reorganizes following the accumulation of prolonged task, suggest dissociable processes between the neural mechanisms of fatigue and recovery, and provide some of the first quantitative insights into the cognitive neuroscience of work and rest.
KW - Functional connectivity
KW - Graph theory
KW - Mental fatigue
KW - Mid-task break
KW - Resting-state fMRI
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.02.084
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.02.084
M3 - Article
C2 - 28257928
AN - SCOPUS:85014489170
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 152
SP - 19
EP - 30
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
ER -