In this episode of Science With Sergio, we go down the rabbit hole on the predictive coding model of cognition and how it relates to fatigue.
As a quick reminder, on Science With Sergio episodes, we dig into a specific scientific paper and attempt to apply it to practical training advice through reckless, hand-wavey assumptions and careless oversimplifications.
On this episode, we discuss Towards the unity of pathological and exertional fatigue: A predictive coding model from Aaron Greenhouse-Tucknott, Jake Butterworth, James Wrightson, Nicholas Smeeton, Hugo Critchley, Jeanne Dekerle, and Neil Harrison.
The predictive coding model of cognition can be opaque and challenging at first, but it offers deep insight into what may be happening when we want to keep exercising but just get too tired.
The authors of this paper argue that the sensation of fatigue may emerge as a response to the brain making poor predictions and realizing that there are huge differences from the data it is taking in from its sense and the predictions it made about what was going to happen.
Basically, if you exercise too hard, you start to lose the ability to predict how your body is going to react, so your brain slows you down until it finds its footing again.
While getting into the weeds of the model can have a sort of hall of mirrors, infinite regress feel to it, there are still practical takeaways for any coaches or athletes looking to better understand why people get tired.
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