Thomas MANGIN

My current research focuses on three main areas.

The first area of focus concerns effort and the perception of effort. Effort is defined as the allocation of resources to accomplish or attempt to accomplish a task, while the perception of effort refers to the conscious awareness (the conscious sensation) of the engagement of these resources. When the difficulty of a task increases, an individual must allocate more resources to the task (i.e., exert more effort) if they wish to maintain their performance. In the presence of pain, the task becomes more difficult as pain monopolizes a portion of the attentional resources that would otherwise be allocated to the task. Consequently, if an individual wants to maintain their performance despite pain, they must engage more effort. The research I conduct in this domain has provided evidence supporting this hypothesis, both in cognitive and motor tasks. At the same time, since the attentional resources normally allocated to processing pain are redirected to the task, this leads to a reduction in the perception of pain stimuli—a phenomenon known as hypoalgesia. 

My second line of research focuses on cognitive fatigue and ego depletion. It builds on the work I conducted during my doctoral studies (Mangin et al., 2021, 2022, 2023). More specifically, this line of research interacts with the first which centers on the perception of effort. I also aim to better understand how cognitive fatigue influences the interaction between perceived effort and pain.

My third area of interest, which is currently predominantly theoretical, focuses on boredom. During my doctoral research, I demonstrated that boredom is a variable that increases cognitive fatigue and ego-depletion (Mangin et al., 2021). Consequently, the presence of boredom during a control task, which is intended to be compared with a task inducing cognitive fatigue, could mask ego-depletion effects. I have also proposed a theoretical model explaining how a boring task reduces performance both indirectly, by increasing cognitive fatigue, and directly (Mangin & Pageaux, 2025).
 

Finally, I am also interested in the philosophy of science within the fields of psychology and physical activity sciences (Briand, Mangin et al., 2025). 

Publications

• Pageaux et al., (Accepted) The central motor command, but not the muscle afferent feedback, is necessary to perceive effort. Experimental Brain Research
• Souron et al., 2026. Mental fatigue impairs cycling endurance performance and perception of effort, but not muscle activation. Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 . https://doi.org/10.24072/pcjournal.760
• O'Malley, Mangin et al., 2026. Controlateral thermal pain and naturally occuring muscle pain have different effects on force production during a fixed perceived effort handgrip task. European Journal of Pain30, no. 6: e70329. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejp.70329
• Mangin & Pageaux, B., 2026. Effort and its perception revisited: How physical-domain insights could lead toward a unified theory. Cognitive, affective and behavioral neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-026-01411-7 
• Mangin*, Villeneuve* et al., 2026. Using perception of effort to prescribe intensity in upper limb movements. Cognitive, affective and behavioral neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-025-01393-y 
• Ghafari Goushe, et al., 2026. Effects of experimental fatigue on motor learning: A scoping review. Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2026.01.030 
• Ghafari Goushe, Mangin, et al., 2025. Perception of effort decreases with motor sequence learning. Scientific Reports 15, 44403. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-20733-z 
• Briand, Mangin, et al., 2025. Bridging inductive and deductive reasoning: a proposal to enhance the evaluation and development of models in Sports and Exercise Science. Sports Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-025-02289-0
• Mangin, & Pageaux, 2025. It Is Time to Stop Using the Terminology “Passive” Fatigue. Motivation Science. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mot0000375 
• Mangin, Audiffren, André, 2023. Réflexions théoriques et méthodologiques autour du concept de fatigue cognitive. Movement and Sport Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1051/sm/2023001 
• Mangin, et al., 2022. A plausible link between the time-on-task effect and the sequential task effect. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.998393 
• Mangin et al., 2021. No ego-depletion effect without a good control task. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 102033. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2021.102033 

Preprint

• Bergevin et al. An introduction to perceptual and affective responses to physical activity and exercise: Definitions, mechanisms, measures, and perspectives. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/csjwd_v1
• Monti et al. Facing pain is effortful: key role of the supplementary motor area and anterior midcingulate cortex. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.17.719211
• Monti et al. increased perceived effort during contralateral thermal heat pain is not explained by increased intracortical and corticospinal inhibition. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.06.30.735616
• Beghin, Pageaux & Mangin. StroopApp: an open-source Stroop application for researchers and clinicians. Software archive on Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19679923
• Mangin et al. Maintaining performance under pain is effortful: experimental and computational evidence. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.02.13.705857
• Vidal et al. Unravelling the fatigue induced by a prolonged typing task. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/mch3k_v2

Curriculum

• January 2022 – August 2026 :   Post-doctoral position in psychology and exercice and sport sciences, CRIUGM, EKSAP, Université de Montréal
• October 2017 – December 2021 :   PhD in psychology, CeRCA, Poitiers University
• March – May 2017 :   Research ingenior, CeRCA, Poitiers University
• February 2017 :   Research ingernior, CNRS, Poitiers University
• November – December 2016 :   Research ingernior CeRCA, Poitiers University
• September 2016 :   Research ingenior, CeRCA, Poitiers University

Scholarships

• Sep 2025 – Aout 2026  ♦  50.000 $CA :   Bourse Postdoctorale, laboratoire Dr Pageaux
• Sep 2023 – Aout 2025  ♦  90.000 $CA :   Bourse Postdoctoral FRQNT
• Janvier – Déc 2022  ♦  45.000 $CA :   Bourse Postdoctoral du CIRUGM 
• Janvier – Avril 2022  ♦  12.000 $CA :   Bourse PBEEE court séjour de recherche FRQNT
• Avril – Aout 2022  ♦  4.882 $CA :   Bourse de recherche Mitacs Globalink
• 2017 - 2020  ♦  100.000 € :   Bourse doctorale du ministère de la Recherche
• 2020  ♦  6000 $CA :   Bourse de recherche Mitacs Globalink pour un séjour de recherche à l'Université de Montréal.
• 2020  ♦  1100 € :   Bourse de recherche de la fondation Poitiers Université pour un séjour de recherche à l'Université de Montréal.