# The effect of transcranial pulse current stimulation on the accumulation of exercise-induced fatigue in college students after moderate intensity exercise evidence from central and peripheral sources

## TL;DR

This study shows that transcranial pulse current stimulation (tPCS) helps reduce fatigue in college students after moderate exercise, mainly by affecting the brain rather than the muscles.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates that tPCS has a greater impact on central fatigue than peripheral fatigue during exercise recovery.

## Key findings

- tPCS delayed the development of both central and peripheral fatigue in college students.
- The effect of tPCS on reaction time was primarily due to changes in central fatigue.
- Group A (tPCS) showed smaller changes in fatigue-related biomarkers compared to the control group.

## Abstract

To investigate the intervention effect of cranial pulse current stimulator (tPCS) on fatigue accumulation after moderate-intensity exercise by using blood analysis and functional near-infrared spectroscopy, and to analyze the type and magnitude of the fatigue effect of tPCS on fatigue in combination with behavioral performance.

Ninety healthy college students were randomly and equally divided into an experimental group (Group A) and a control group (Group B), and both groups underwent moderate-intensity training for 7 days. Before and after the experiment, all subjects received physiological, biochemical, behavioral, and subjective fatigue indexes, followed by exercise training, and each day of exercise training was followed by tPCS intervention (stimulus intensity of 1.5 mA, stimulus duration of 20 min) and subjective fatigue scale (RPE) test.

① After the tPCS intervention, the daily RPE scores of group A were smaller than those of group B; ② The values of the indexes oxygenated hemoglobin concentration (Oxy-Hb), deoxyhemoglobin concentration (HHb), testosterone (T), and testosterone-to-cortisol ratio (T/C) of group A did not differ significantly from those of the pre-intervention period, and the values of all the indexes of group B were significantly different from those of the pre-intervention period. ③ After tPCS intervention, the values of Oxy-Hb, T, T/C, and on-attention decreased in Groups A and B, with Oxy-Hb decreasing the most; the values of HHb, total hemoglobin concentration (HbTot), hemoglobin concentration difference (HbDiff), cortisol (C), creatine kinase (CK), and reaction time (RT) increased, with the greatest increase in HbDiff; and the Group A The magnitude of change of each index was smaller than that of Group B. After tPCS intervention, the contribution of central fatigue to the effect of reaction time science was greater than that of peripheral fatigue.

① tPCS can delay the development of central fatigue and peripheral fatigue. ② The effect of tPCS on central fatigue is greater than on peripheral fatigue. ③ The effect of tPCS on reaction timing is mainly realized by changing the state of central fatigue.