23.3: Mechanisms that Underlie the Effects of Music in Sport

Following a 30-year period in which a large number of observational and descriptive-type studies entered the music-in-sport literature, the past 20 years have witnessed a steady stream of studies and chapters that have addressed the underlying mechanisms (e.g., Bigliassi et al., 2018; Grahn & Brett, 2007; Karageorghis et al., 2017; Kornysheva et al., 2010). This subsection will outline a typology of three mechanisms that are commonly advanced to explain how music takes effect in the sport context: (a) in influencing athletes’ affective and emotional states; (b) as a dissociative technique, particularly during endurance events/sessions; and (c) as a facilitator of auditory-motor synchronization and rhythmic action.

23.3.1. Affect and Emotions

The common reasons athletes give for using music include the control of arousal, the regulation or modulation of affective states, and the elicitation of specific emotions (e.g., liveliness, calmness, or aggression; Laukka & Quick, 2013). We use the term affect to refer to a neurophysiological state that is consciously accessible as a simple primitive, nonreflective feeling (Russell & Barrett, 1999). We use the term emotion with reference to feelings that are typically brief, intense, and attributable to a discernible cause (Beedie et al., 2005). For more on the conceptual distinctions between affect and emotion, please see Chapter 12 (Zenko & Ladwig, 2021).

Juslin (2013) offered a theoretical framework that proposed eight psychological mechanisms through which music influences affective and emotional responses. In the interests of brevity, we will focus here on just four of these mechanisms and duly refer the reader to Juslin’s paper for the full complement. The brain stem reflex refers to the process by which the fundamental acoustic properties of music stimulate responses through signaling a potentially important or urgent event. For example, fast, loud music would automatically stimulate the listener by activating the central nervous system irrespective of how the music is subsequently appraised. This stimulation results in elevated heart rate(HR), blood pressure, body temperature, skin conductance, and muscle tension (Chapados & Levitin, 2008). Soft, slow music has the converse effect and thus decreases sympathetic arousal.

The second mechanism offered by Juslin (2013) is the biomusicological process of rhythmic entrainment. The rate of movement and bodily pulses such as HR and respiration rate are drawn toward synchronization with the rhythmical qualities of music. Invariably, athletes express a preference for musical tempo to remain relatively high during intense training sessions (Karageorghis & Jones, 2014; Laukka & Quick, 2013). Along similar lines, given the propensity for brainwaves to entrain with tempo (e.g., Will & Berg, 2007), music can have a priming effect pretraining or as part of an athlete’s precompetition routine (Loizou & Karageorghis, 2015; Pettit & Karageorghis, 2020). Slow, calming music can also be used to combat the symptoms of precompetition anxiety (Kuan et al., 2018; Laukka & Quick, 2013).

Scherer and Zentner (2001) highlighted that music can influence the human organism by serving as a trigger for emotional associations, a process that may rely on subcortical mechanisms. Related to this notion, the third of Juslin’s (2013) hypothesized mechanisms, evaluative conditioning, refers to the repeated pairing of a particular piece of music with other positively or negatively valenced stimuli. For example, a specific piece may, through repetition, become inextricably linked with part of an athlete’s pre-event routine. This is a form of classical conditioning, wherein a previously neutrally valenced conditioned stimulus (i.e., a piece of music) gains the ability to evoke the same emotional response as a positively valenced unconditioned stimulus (i.e., a sense of being mentally ready).

Visual imagery is another particularly relevant mechanism from a sports perspective (Kuan et al., 2018). Juslin (2013) explained this in terms of emotions induced due to the music evoking memories of an individual’s specific life events (e.g., imaging a previously successful sporting performan ceconjures the associated emotions). Music is effective in stimulating visual imagery (e.g., McKinney & Tims, 1995), and athletes are generally adept in using visual imagery to, for example, induce relaxation or achieve an appropriate precompetition mindset (Gregg et al., 2005; Karageorghis, Bigliassi et al., 2018). It appears plausible, therefore, that emotional responses to music listening originate, in part at least, from the visual images generated by the listener (Lundqvist et al., 2009).

23.3.2. Dissociation and Perception of Exertion

Music is a stimulus that promotes dissociation or an outward-type of focus and so it can distract athletes from pain as well as from fatigue-related cues. Neural mechanisms that influence the perception of exertion are thought to underlie some of the documented effects of music in the sport context. The afferent nervous system, which transmits impulses (e.g., pain and fatigue) toward the spinal column and brain, exhibits a limited channel capacity (analogous to internet bandwidth). Consequently, sensory stimuli such as music may inhibit the physiological feedback signals associated with physical exertion (Hernández‐Peón et al., 1961; Rejeski, 1985). A study using electroencephalography (EEG) showed that music is effective in downregulating theta waves (4–7 Hz) in the frontal, central, parietal, and occipital regions of the brain (Bigliassi et al., 2016). This process has been directly associated with the suppression of fatigue-related symptoms (see Craig et al., 2012).

The aforementioned sensation-inhibiting capacity of music is far less pronounced at higher physical activity intensities (i.e., > 75% VO₂max) when the signal strength of physiological feedback is more potent (Ekkekakis, 2003; Tenenbaum, 2001). Nonetheless, even during high-intensity physical activity, affective stimuli such as music appear to retain some influence on how athletes feel and therefore how they interpret the sensations of physical effort and fatigue (e.g., Olson et al., 2015; Terry et al., 2012). In recent neurophysiological work, again using EEG, it was demonstrated that music reduced brain connectivity across frontal and central regions of the cortex (i.e., the sensorimotor regions); a phenomenon that is associated with reduced exercise consciousness (Bigliassi et al., 2017).

23.3.3. Rhythmic Responses to Music

From an evolutionary perspective, it seems that humans have developed a genetic predisposition to respond to music (Levitin, 2008; Patel, 2008; Phillips-Silver & Keller, 2012) and this is important in helping to explain the potential benefits of music in the realm of sport. The coupling of perception and movement is guided by recurrent patterns in the structure of music (Leman et al., 2013). Coupling pertains to the connection between agents that enables them to communicate and receive information about each other’s actions (Himberg, 2017). In the case of entrainment, coupling is normally mutual or bidirectional, allowing two agents to perceive and influence each other.

In the application of synchronous music to an activity such as running, until recently, the coupling was unidirectional, as the athlete could follow the musical rhythm, but the rhythm did not alter in response to their movement rate. Athletes can now use accelerometers and digital interfaces that facilitate mutual synchronization (e.g., Moens et al., 2014; D-Jogger); this relates directly to the earlier-described notion of passive synchronization. The central processing demands that pertain to passive synchronization are, conceivably, of a lesser order when compared to unidirectional coupling (i.e., active synchronization), albeit comparative studies have yet to emerge in the music-in-sport literature.

It has been proposed that a central pattern generator or pacemaker in the brain may serve to regulate temporal functioning and govern the rhythm response—the innate human predisposition to synchronize movement with musical rhythms (Schneider et al., 2010). This mechanism would coordinate afferent nerve signals with their efferent counterparts that control movement, and also regulate locomotion, neurovascular control, and sensory integration. The supplementary motor area of the brain is another likely seat of the rhythm response, as this sector is activated both during the perception of musical rhythms and in the rhythmic ordering of motor tasks (Zatorre et al., 1996).

The process of synchronizing movement with music, often referred to as auditory-motor synchronization (Bood et al., 2013; Karageorghis et al., 2019; Schmidt-Kassow et al., 2013), is a form of rhythmic entrainment (see Juslin, 2013). In mechanistic terms, training in synchrony with music can lower the metabolic cost of the activity by promoting greater neuromuscular and kinetic efficiency (Bacon et al., 2012; Roerdink, 2008; Terry et al., 2012). Now that we have covered some of the key underlying mechanisms, we will go on to critically review empirical research studies in the area of music and sport.