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Uncovering Sex-Specific Mechanisms of Neuromuscular Fatigue Under Cognitive and Motor Perturbations via Neuromodulation and Brain Network Analysis
Abstract
Fatigue is a significant workplace concern which has shown to exacerbate worker health,
injury risk, safety, and productivity, and accounts for $136 Billion in lost productivity and
healthcare costs. Exercise-induced neuromuscular fatigue can increase work-related
musculoskeletal injuries and is impacted by several individual factors, such as sex and age.
Neuromuscular fatigue is modulated by the brain that determines the perceptions of fatigue or
exhaustion through proprioceptive and affective inputs that may be sex specific. Stress is a
cognitive perturbation of the brain and can therefore influence fatigue development. Despite the
occupational relevance of stress and cognitive demands in high-risk work domains (e.g.,
healthcare, emergency response, manufacturing), their potential contributions to neuromuscular
fatigue and associated underlying mechanisms among men and women are not well documented.
This dissertation investigates the sex-specific mechanisms of neuromuscular performance and
fatigue under stress for young and old adults and the subsequent role of the cognitive brain in
modulating fatigue. Here results from three studies are presented that investigate 1) the sex-specific mechanisms of neuromuscular performance under the influence of stress, 2) the sex-specific neural and physiological mechanisms of fatigue for handgrip exercise, and 3) investigate
the central mechanisms of fatigue under stress. Collectively, this work highlights key demographic
differences in vulnerability to fatigue under stress, emphasizes the role of the prefrontal cortex
during neuromuscular fatigue manifestation, and illuminates how stress further affects motor
performance and fatigability using integrated neuromodulation and neuroimaging methods.
Citation
Tyagi, Oshin (2023). Uncovering Sex-Specific Mechanisms of Neuromuscular Fatigue Under Cognitive and Motor Perturbations via Neuromodulation and Brain Network Analysis. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /199984.