Cognitive Performance During Physical Activity, Fatigue, Football Players, Recovery, Sports Performance
Conditions
Keywords
Soccer, Football, Supplementation, Exercise Performance, Recovery
Brief summary
This randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial will investigate the effects of multi-ingredient supplementation containing taurine, caffeine, and phosphatidylserine on physical performance, cognitive function, cognitive fatigue responses, recovery, sleep quality, and autonomic nervous system activity in elite male soccer players. Participants will complete a 14-day supplementation protocol and undergo football-specific performance, reaction-time, cognitive-fatigue, recovery, and sleep-related assessments before and after the intervention. The study aims to determine whether phosphatidylserine dose influences physical, cognitive, fatigue-related, and recovery-related outcomes when combined with taurine and caffeine.
Detailed description
The planned study will be a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial designed as a continuation and extension of previous research on multi-ingredient supplementation in professional football players. The primary aim will be to investigate the dose-dependent effects of phosphatidylserine combined with taurine and caffeine under standardized football-specific training conditions and acute cognitive-fatigue conditions. Approximately 80 professional male football players competing at national level will be randomly assigned to four groups: placebo, taurine + caffeine, taurine + caffeine + phosphatidylserine 300 mg, and taurine + caffeine + phosphatidylserine 600 mg. Importantly, caffeine and taurine doses will remain identical across all active supplementation groups in order to enable a more precise evaluation of the independent effects of phosphatidylserine. Participants will complete a 14-day supplementation protocol and undergo baseline and post-intervention assessments including 30 m sprint performance, reaction time, cognitive-fatigue responses, football-specific GPS monitoring, fatigue-related performance decline, recovery-related variables, sleep monitoring, and autonomic nervous system activity assessment. The study is expected to provide novel insights into the role of phosphatidylserine in football-specific performance, cognitive fatigue resistance, recovery, and neurophysiological responses in elite football players.
Interventions
OTHERPlacebo
Placebo capsules administered daily during the 14-day intervention period
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENTtaurine
Taurine supplementation administered daily during the 14-day intervention period.
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENTCaffeine
Caffeine supplementation administered daily during the 14-day intervention period.
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENTPhosphatidylserine
Phosphatidylserine supplementation administered daily during the 14-day intervention period.
Sponsors
Vizja University in Warsaw
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
TRIPLE (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Intervention model description
Participants will be randomly assigned to parallel study groups receiving either placebo or multi-ingredient supplementation during the intervention period.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
MALE
Age
18 Years to 35 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
\- Inclusion Criteria: * Professional male football players aged 18-35 years * Regular participation in team training and competitive matches * Clinically healthy status confirmed prior to participation * Written informed consent provided
Exclusion criteria
* Current musculoskeletal injury or illness * Chronic metabolic, cardiovascular, or neurological disease * Regular medication use * Current use of dietary supplements or ergogenic aids * Smoking or excessive alcohol consumption * Known hypersensitivity to any study supplement ingredient
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 30 m sprint time | Baseline and after 14 days of supplementation | Time required to complete a 30 m sprint, measured using electronic timing gates. The best result from three maximal sprint trials will be used for analysis. Unit of Measure: seconds |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Relative distance | After 14 days of supplementation, during the standardized football-specific training session | Distance covered per minute during the standardized football-specific training session, measured using a 10-Hz GPS tracking system. Unit of Measure: meters per minute |
| High-speed running distance | After 14 days of supplementation, during the standardized football-specific training session | Description: Distance covered at running speeds above 19.8 km/h during the standardized football-specific training session, measured using a 10-Hz GPS tracking system. Unit of Measure: meters |
| Number of sprints | After 14 days of supplementation, during the standardized football-specific training session | Total number of sprint efforts performed during the standardized football-specific training session. Sprinting will be defined as running speed above 25.0 km/h and measured using a 10-Hz GPS tracking system. Unit of Measure: number of sprints |
| Player Load | After 14 days of supplementation, during the standardized football-specific training session | External training load during the standardized football-specific training session, measured using triaxial accelerometry integrated with the GPS tracking system. Unit of Measure: arbitrary units |
| Heart rate variability RMSSD | Daily during the 14-day supplementation period | Resting heart rate variability assessed in the morning using the root mean square of successive differences between normal heartbeats. HRV will be measured using a heart rate sensor or wearable device under standardized resting conditions. Unit of Measure: milliseconds |
| Sleep duration | Daily during the 14-day supplementation period | Total sleep duration assessed using wearable sleep monitoring. Unit of Measure: hours |
| Sleep efficiency | Daily during the 14-day supplementation period | Percentage of time in bed spent asleep, assessed using wearable sleep monitoring. Unit of Measure: percent |
| Subjective fatigue | Daily during the 14-day supplementation period | Subjective fatigue assessed using the fatigue item of the Hooper Index questionnaire on a 1-7 scale, where higher values indicate greater fatigue. Unit of Measure: score on a scale |
| Muscle soreness | Daily during the 14-day supplementation period | Perceived lower-limb muscle soreness assessed using a 0-10 delayed onset muscle soreness scale, where higher values indicate greater soreness. Unit of Measure: score on a scale |
| Stroop task reaction time | Baseline and after 14 days of supplementation | Mean response time during a modified computerized Stroop task assessing cognitive fatigue, inhibitory control, sustained attention, and information processing speed. Unit of Measure: seconds |
| Stroop task accuracy | Baseline and after 14 days of supplementation | Percentage of correct responses during a modified computerized Stroop task. Unit of Measure: percent |
| Stroop task error rate | Baseline and after 14 days of supplementation | Number of incorrect responses during a modified computerized Stroop task. Unit of Measure: number of errors |
| Perceived mental fatigue | Baseline and after 14 days of supplementation | Subjective perceived mental fatigue assessed using a 0-10 visual analogue scale, where higher values indicate greater perceived mental fatigue. Unit of Measure: score on a 0-10 scale |
| Change in sprint count between first and second half | After 14 days of supplementation, during the standardized football-specific training session | Percentage decline in the number of sprints between the first and second half of the standardized football-specific training session. Sprint change will be calculated as: \[(second half value - first half value) / first half value\] × 100. Unit of Measure: percent |
| Visual reaction time | Baseline and after 14 days of supplementation | Mean response time to a visual stimulus, measured using a validated visual reaction time test. |
| Total distance covered | After 14 days of supplementation, during the standardized football-specific training session | Total distance covered during the standardized football-specific training session, measured using a 10-Hz GPS tracking system. Unit of Measure: meters |
| Auditory reaction time | Baseline and after 14 days of supplementation | Mean response time to an auditory stimulus, measured using a computerized auditory reaction time test. |
Countries
Hungary, Poland, Spain
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORKrzysztof Maciej MIZERA, PhD
1. Vizja University in Warsaw, Faculty of Medical Sciences and Health Sciences, 01-143 Warsaw, Poland
Outcome results
None listed