ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1582873
This article is part of the Research TopicOvercoming Hurdles in ACL Injury Recovery: Multidisciplinary Strategies for Enhanced Return to SportView all articles
Effects of Mental Fatigue on Biomechanical Characteristics and Risk Associated with Non-Contact Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries During Landing
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- 2Key Laboratory of Adolescent Health Assessment and Exercise Intervention of Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, Beijing Municipality, China
- 3Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective : To investigate and compare the effects of mental fatigue (MF) on biomechanical characteristics associated with non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injury (NC-ACLI) in male college students during stop-jump (SJ) and single-leg landing (SL), and whether it increases NC-ACLI risk.Methods: MF was induced by a 45-minute Stroop task and measured using the visual analogue scale for MF (VAS-MF), while motion capture, force platforms, and surface electromyography (SEMG) evaluated biomechanical variables before and after MF induction in thirty-six subjects. Kinematic, kinetic, and SEMG data were analyzed using two-factor repeated measures ANOVA and rank-based nonparametric ANOVA.Results: Following MF induction, VAS-MF scores increased significantly. The ANOVA showed that in both maneuvers, peak vertical ground reaction force increased, while ankle dorsiflexion angle and knee flexion moment decreased. In SJ, knee flexion and internal rotation angles and internal rotation moment decreased, whereas knee abduction moment increased; these parameters did not change significantly in SL. The median frequency of biceps femoris SEMG decreased in SL but remained unchanged in SJ. No significant differences were found in hip flexion angle, knee adduction angle, or SEMG measures of rectus femoris, tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius lateral head, or biceps femoris root mean square.Conclusion: MF partly influences NC-ACLI biomechanics and increases risk in both maneuvers-more pronounced in SJ than in SL-potentially due to MF's impact on central nervous system function, cognition, and attention. MF should be considered in NC-ACLI prevention strategies.
Keywords: Mental Fatigue, Stop-jump, Single-leg landing, Non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injury, Sports biomechanics
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 08 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zheng, Zhang, Zhang, Sun, Xiao and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Youping Sun, College of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.