Excessive athletic training weakens brain, finds study

Researchers claims that excessive athletic training not only makes one's body tired but also drains the brain.When researchers imposed an excessive training load on triathletes, they showed a form of mental fatigue. This fatigue included reduced activity in a portion of the brain important for making decisions.The athletes also acted more impulsively, opting for immediate rewards instead of bigger ones that would take longer to achieve, reported the study published in the journal 'Current Biology'."The lateral prefrontal region that was affected by sport-training overload was exactly the same that had been shown vulnerable to excessive cognitive work in our previous studies," said corresponding author Mathias Pessiglione of Hopital de la Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris. "This brain region, therefore, appeared as the weak spot of the brain network responsible for cognitive control."Together, the studies suggest a connection between mental and physical effort: both require cognitive control.