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Mental and physical fatigue altered working memory consolidation and impaired gaze behavior and perceptual-cognitive skills using video-based and real-situation
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  • Published: 22 February 2026

Mental and physical fatigue altered working memory consolidation and impaired gaze behavior and perceptual-cognitive skills using video-based and real-situation

  • Faezeh Khoshdouni Farahani1,
  • Parvaneh Shamsipour Dehkordi2,
  • Maryam Khalaji3,
  • Saeed Alboghebeish4,
  • Mert Kurnaz5 &
  • …
  • Mustafa Altınkök6 

Scientific Reports , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology

Abstract

The efficient processing of visual information is crucial to success in rapid sports such as badminton. The current study examined the effects of mental, physical, and dual mental-physical exhaustion on novices’ anticipation, decision-making, eye movements, and working memory consolidation. Thirty-six participants underwent video-based and real-situation tasks before and after completing one of the three exhaustion protocols. The duration and number of fixations for nine areas of interest, response accuracy (anticipation), response time (decision-making), and working memory with the n-back task were evaluated. The study found that mental fatigue affects performance and perceptual-cognitive skills, but mental-physical and physical fatigue were associated with changes in gaze behavior patterns in video-based and real-situation. Anticipation, decision-making, and working memory consolidation were reduced following mental fatigue more than mental-physical and physical fatigue. Additionally, the study was associated with two distinct gaze behaviors for successful and unsuccessful performance. Successful strokes were associated with longer fixation duration on the boundary lines, anticipation areas, and the upper body. The study found that fatigue-induced changes in gaze behavior and successful and unsuccessful performance were associated with two distinct gaze behaviors, and the gaze behavior patterns were different in video-based and real-situation. Understanding how fatigue was related to these mental processes is essential for optimizing performance in various tasks, from daily activities to high-pressure sports fields.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions: They contain information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to all participants in the research for their contributions to science.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Faezeh Khoshdouni Farahani

  2. Department of Motor Behavior, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

    Parvaneh Shamsipour Dehkordi

  3. Department of Sport Coaching, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Health, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Maryam Khalaji

  4. Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science and Technology in Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Health, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

    Saeed Alboghebeish

  5. Department of Physical Education and Sport Teaching, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Haliç University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Mert Kurnaz

  6. Department of Physical Education and Sport Teaching, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey

    Mustafa Altınkök

Authors
  1. Faezeh Khoshdouni Farahani
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  2. Parvaneh Shamsipour Dehkordi
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  3. Maryam Khalaji
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  4. Saeed Alboghebeish
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Contributions

F.K.F.: Investigation, funding acquisition, methodology, software, data curation, validation, writing—review & editing. P.S.D.: Investigation, funding acquisition, methodology, software, data curation, validation, writing—review & editing. M.K.: Funding acquisition, methodology, formal analysis, data curation, validation, visualization, project administration, writing—review & editing. S.A.: Data curation, methodology, formal analysis, software, validation, visualization, project administration, writing—review & editing. M.K1.: Conceptualization, supervision, methodology, formal analysis, validation, visualization, project administration, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing. M.A.: Conceptualization, supervision, methodology, formal analysis, validation, visualization, project administration, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Maryam Khalaji or Mert Kurnaz.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The Ethics Committee of the Sports Sciences Research Institute of Iran approved the study (IR.SSRI.REC.1401.1620). All participants provided written informed consent before participation, with the assurance that they could withdraw from the study at any time. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Farahani, F.K., Dehkordi, P.S., Khalaji, M. et al. Mental and physical fatigue altered working memory consolidation and impaired gaze behavior and perceptual-cognitive skills using video-based and real-situation. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40994-6

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  • Received: 16 September 2025

  • Accepted: 17 February 2026

  • Published: 22 February 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40994-6

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Keywords

  • Anticipation
  • Decision-making
  • Fixation
  • Racket sports
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