Physical and Mental Fatigue: Autonomic and Neuromechanical Repercussions in Sport, Health, and Rehabilitation

This Research Topic aims to bring together research examining how different sources of physical and mental fatigue affect autonomic nervous system regulation and mechanical or motor outputs. Rather than treating fatigue as a single construct, the collection welcomes work that distinguishes among fatigue types and mechanisms and links autonomic responses to functional consequences for movement, balance, and performance. Contributions may span healthy, athletic, occupational, and clinical populations and may use physiological monitoring, biomechanical analysis, wearable sensor technology, or a combination of these approaches.Objectives• Clarify how different sources and types of fatigue (physical, mental, or combined) affect autonomic nervous system regulation• Examine the relationship between autonomic markers of fatigue and mechanical or motor outputs, including gait, posture, and movement control• Synthesize evidence on how fatigue-related autonomic and neuromechanical changes affect performance, safety, and injury or fall risk• Explore applications of these findings for monitoring, recovery strategies, and rehabilitation across sport, occupational, and clinical contexts• Build a citable, coherent collection that establishes fatigue as a unifying framework linking autonomic physiology and biomechanicsThemesThis Research Topic welcomes articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Autonomic nervous system responses (e.g., heart rate variability and muscle sympathetic nerve activity) to physical versus mental fatigue• Effects of fatigue on postural control, gait initiation, and anticipatory postural adjustments• Neuromuscular and biomechanical markers of fatigue-related declines in movement• Central versus peripheral fatigue mechanisms and their functional consequences• Wearable sensors and monitoring technologies for tracking fatigue-related physiological and mechanical changes• Fatigue, autonomic regulation, and injury or fall risk in sport, occupational, and clinical populations• Recovery strategies informed by autonomic and biomechanical fatigue markers• Cognitive fatigue and its interaction with motor control and physical performance• Applied and translational approaches to fatigue monitoring in athletic, workplace, and rehabilitation settings• Population-specific fatigue responses (e.g., aging, neurological conditions, elite athletes)The Research Topic may include original research, reviews, and methods papers. Topic editors: Jorge Lopes Storniolo, Giorgio Manferdelli, Gabriel Dias Rodrigues Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86117/physical-and-mental-fatigue-autonomic-and-neuromechanical-repercussions-in-sport-health-and-rehabilitation