A monetary reward prolongs cycling time-to-task failure without altering performance fatigability and perceptual responses.

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the effects of an unexpected monetary reward on time-to-task failure (TTF) as well as on measures of performance and perceptual fatigability in healthy young adults. Methods: During two separate sessions, 18 participants (9 females) completed a TTF within the heavy-intensity domain (HVY TTF ) which was followed, after one minute of rest, by a TTF within the extreme-intensity domain (EXT TTF ). In the second HVY TTF session, an unexpected monetary reward was offered prior the self-anticipated task failure. Before and after each trial, neuromuscular fatigue was assessed at baseline (NMF BSLN ) and following HVY TTF (NMF HVY ) and EXT TTF (NMF EXT ) using femoral nerve stimulation during and after a quadriceps muscle isometric maximal voluntary contraction (IMVC). Results: The unexpected monetary reward significantly increased HVY TTF (46±16 min vs 53±22 min; P=0.011), while reducing the following EXT TTF (68±17 s vs 57±17 s; P=0.034. IMVC (~ -31%), Db 10 (~ -42%), Db 100 (~ -21%), low-frequency fatigue (~ -26%), and potentiated twitch force (~ -37%) were all reduced from NMF BSLN to NMF HVY ( P<0.001) with no further declines following NMF EXT ( P>0.005) except for Db 10 (~ -9%, P=0.007) and potentiated twitch force (~ -9%; P<0.001). Voluntary activation did not change from NMF BSLN to NMF HVY or from NMF BSLN to NMF EXT following either of the conditions ( P>0.005). Conclusions: These findings indicate that an unexpected monetary reward can increase exercise performance within the heavy-intensity domain. This improvement while being associated with no further reductions in neuromuscular indices of fatigue, it impaired subsequent extreme-intensity performance.