Musical information increases physical performance for synchronous but not asynchronous running

Abstract

Given that physical performance is enhanced by listening to music, what information in the music is the active ingredient? Here, we varied the amount of music information in an otherwise identical piece of music, from only the rhythm, through a synthesized and scaled down version, to the full original version. Twenty-two university students (11 males and 11 females) ran for 10 minutes to each of eight conditions, two with white noise, three with music that facilitated synchronization with the running pace, and three with tempi where synchronization was impossible. Dependent variables were distance run and the number of steps, from which stride length was computed. Heart rate and mood (PANAS) were also measured for control purposes. Participants tended to run a greater distance when there was more music information, which was mainly an effect of longer strides rather than a faster stride rate. This effect was stronger in the synchronous conditions. The results suggest that the motivational effects of music information during running is mostly related to richer temporal information conveyed by faster metrical levels, when attempting to synchronize with the beat in the music