Effects of Auditory Stimuli During Exhaustive Exercise on Cerebral Oxygenation and Psychophysical Responses

Asynchronous music has been commonly used to reduce perceived exertion and render the exercise experience more pleasant. Research has indicated that in-task asynchronous music can reallocate an individual’s attentional focus to task-unrelated signals and increase the use of dissociative thoughts. Nonetheless, the brain mechanisms that underlie the purported benefits of music during exercise remain largely unknown due to the severe motion-related restrictions of popular neuroimaging techniques. f NIRS represents a non-invasive imaging method that is particularly suited to exercise-related protocols given its high tolerance to motion artifacts. With use of f NIRS, the purpose of the present study was to determine the point of onset of cerebral oxygenation decline during exercise, and how this is influenced by the presence of asynchronous (ambient) motivational music. A continuous-wave f NIRS system was used to record the prefrontal, motor, and parietal hemodynamic responses of 36 participants who performed a cycle ergometry exercise protocol to the point of volitional exhaustion. Results indicated that asynchronous music did not engender any significant changes in cerebral hemodynamics, exercise endurance, or subjective measures, when compared to audiobook and silence control conditions. A nonsignificant trend emerged, suggesting reduced medial prefrontal cortex activation and slightly improved endurance with music. The present findings highlight the complexities associated with the influence of music on exercise-related brain activity. Further research employing more homogeneous samples and alternative exercise protocols is warranted to elucidate the neurophysiological mechanism that underlie the effects of music during exhaustive exercise.

• Publication year

  2026

• Venue

  Imaging Neuroscience

• Publication date

  Unknown publication date

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1162/imag.a.1166
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Agreement Between Heart Rate Variability - Derived vs. Ventilatory and Lactate Thresholds: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analyses

  2024cited by this paper
• Why the use of segmented regression analysis to explore change in relations between variables is problematic: A simulation study.

  2023cited by this paper
• Reliability of the heart rate variability threshold during treadmill exercise

  2022cited by this paper
• The past, present and future of Registered Reports

  2020cited by this paper
• Improved physiological noise regression in fNIRS: A multimodal extension of the General Linear Model using temporally embedded Canonical Correlation Analysis

  2019cited by this paper
• Denoising of neuronal signal from mixed systemic low-frequency oscillation using peripheral measurement as noise regressor in near-infrared imaging

  2019cited by this paper
• Investigating static nonlinearities in neurovascular coupling.

  2011cited by this paper
• Validity of criteria for establishing maximal O2 uptake during ramp exercise tests

  2008cited by this paper
• Modeling low‐frequency fluctuation and hemodynamic response timecourse in event‐related fMRI

  2008cited by this paper
• Designing and reporting experiments in psychology - 3rd ed.

  2008cited by this paper
• Affective Responses to Acute Exercise: Toward a Psychobiological Dose-Response Model.

  2006cited by this paper
• Pleasure and displeasure from the body: Perspectives from exercise

  2003cited by this paper

• Effect of Traffic Separation and Nature Integration on Affect and Cerebral 1 Oxygenation During Active Transport: An Immersive Virtual Reality and 2 Multi-Study Design

  year unknowncites this paper