ABSTRACT
The proposal that listening to music is an “ergogenic aid” that improves performance on physical tasks is well-grounded both by personal experience and extensive scientific research. Still, how this effect of music can be explained remains controversial. Some have viewed such enhancement of motor performance as a matter of sympathetic arousal, while others have considered music as a distraction from the uncomfortableness of exercise. Most research in this area has addressed the link of music to emotional responses. These studies have suggested that one’s reactions to music may be based more on cultural influences rather than biological mechanisms. How such information might be transferred to the effect of music as an ergogenic aid, however, remains uncertain. Recent studies investigating the role of dopamine function in the brains of animals suggest this neurochemical agent as central to pleasure-seeking motor activity, such as wheel running in rodents. Whether this mechanism can explain enhanced physical performance in humans while listening to music remains to be ascertained.
