title: Cognitive Functioning and Heat Strain: Performance Responses and Protective Strategies.
abstract: Despite the predominance of research on physical performance in the heat, many activities require high cognitive functioning for optimal performance (i.e. decision making) and/or health purposes (i.e. injury risk). Prolonged periods of demanding cognitive activity or exercise-induced fatigue will incur altered cognitive functioning. The addition of hot environmental conditions will exacerbate poor cognitive functioning and negatively affect performance outcomes. The present paper attempts to extract consistent themes from the heat-cognition literature to explore cognitive performance as a function of the level of heat stress encountered. More specifically, experimental studies investigating cognitive performance in conditions of hyperthermia, often via the completion of computerised tasks (i.e. cognitive tests), are used to better understand the relationship between endogenous thermal load and cognitive performance. The existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between hyperthermia development and cognitive performance is suggested, and highlights core temperatures of ~38.5 °C as the potential 'threshold' for hyperthermia-induced negative cognitive performance. From this perspective, interventions to slow or blunt thermal loads and protect both task- and hyperthermia-related changes in task performances (e.g. cooling strategies) could be used to great benefit and potentially preserve cognitive performance during heat strain.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sport, Expertise and Performance (EA 7370), Research Department, French National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), 11, Avenue du Tremblay, 75 012, Paris, France. cyril.schmit@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Cyril
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schmit
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sport, Expertise and Performance (EA 7370), Research Department, French National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), 11, Avenue du Tremblay, 75 012, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hausswirth
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Sport, Expertise and Performance (EA 7370), Research Department, French National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), 11, Avenue du Tremblay, 75 012, Paris, France.|Medical Department, AS Monaco Football Club, Monaco, Monaco.|Laboratory LAMHESS (EA6312), University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, Nice, France.
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Le Meur
authors.affiliation: Sport and Exercise Discipline Group, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Moore Park, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Duffield
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making; D005334:Fever / Q000209:etiology*; D018882:Heat Stress Disorders; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis