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Running with musical accompaniment is becoming increasingly popular and several pieces of software have been developed that match the music tempo to the exerciser’s running cadence, that is, foot strikes per minute. Synchronizing music with running cadence has been shown to affect several aspects of performance output and perception. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of synchronous music on runners’ foot impact loading. This represents the ground reaction force on the runner’s lower leg when the foot impacts the ground and is an important parameter for the prevention of tibial fracture injuries. Twenty-eight participants ran five times for three minutes and 30 seconds with a short break between each run. During the first 30 seconds of each running sequence, participants ran at a self-paced tempo without musical accompaniment, and running speed and cadence were measured. Subsequently, they were requested to keep their reference speed constant for the following three minutes, with the help of three monitoring screens placed along the track. During this part of the experiment, the music was either absent ( No Music), matched to the runner’s cadence ( Tempo-entrained Sync), phase-locked with foot strikes ( Phase-locked Sync), or played at a tempo 30% slower ( Minus 30%) or faster ( Plus 30%) than the initially measured running cadence. No significant differences between synchronous and asynchronous music were retrieved for impact loading. However, a non-negligible average increase of impact level could be observed for running sessions with music compared to running in silence. These findings might be especially relevant for treatment purposes, such as exercise prescription and gait retraining, and should be taken into account when designing musical (re-)training programmes.

Sensorimotor integration tasks, such as body movements in time with music, can foster the experience of flow – a pleasurable state of full engagement and concentration occurring during a seemingly effortless and automatic activity. As it can be argued that both music and flow are embodied phenomena, perception-action coupling might be the core of the intimate relationship between flow and music. The current study examines the relationship between the subjective experience of flow and sensorimotor synchronization accuracy/stability in a finger-tapping task with music. In a between-subjects design, participants tapped in time with the beat of music clips with either low, medium, or high rhythmic complexity. After the tapping task, they rated their flow state on the Flow Short Scale with the two subscales fluency of performance and absorption by activity. Tapping accuracy and stability were assessed by the circular variance and the SD of inter-tap-intervals (ITIs), respectively. Both tapping accuracy and stability were significantly correlated with fluency of performance for music clips with medium and high rhythmic complexity, but not for music clips with low rhythmic complexity. No significant correlations were found between tapping accuracy/stability and absorption by activity. The findings add to evidence that perception-action coupling plays a key role in explaining the relationship between flow experience and musical activities. They also suggest that absorption by activity is not as relevant to the experience of flow during musical activities as one might initially assume.

Taking regular walks when living with Parkinson’s disease (PD) has beneficial effects on movement and quality of life. Yet, patients usually show reduced physical activity compared to healthy older adults. Using auditory stimulation such as music can facilitate walking but patients vary significantly in their response. An individualized approach adapting musical tempo to patients’ gait cadence, and capitalizing on these individual differences, is likely to provide a rewarding experience, increasing motivation for walk-in PD. We aim to evaluate the observance, safety, tolerance, usability, and enjoyment of a new smartphone application. It was coupled with wearable sensors (BeatWalk) and delivered individualized musical stimulation for gait auto-rehabilitation at home. Forty-five patients with PD underwent a 1-month, outdoor, uncontrolled gait rehabilitation program, using the BeatWalk application (30 min/day, 5 days/week). The music tempo was being aligned in real-time to patients’ gait cadence in a way that could foster an increase up to +10% of their spontaneous cadence. Open-label evaluation was based on BeatWalk use measures, questionnaires, and a six-minute walk test. Patients used the application 78.8% (±28.2) of the prescribed duration and enjoyed it throughout the program. The application was considered “easy to use” by 75% of the patients. Pain, fatigue, and falls did not increase. Fear of falling decreased and quality of life improved. After the program, patients improved their gait parameters in the six-minute walk test without musical stimulation. BeatWalk is an easy to use, safe, and enjoyable musical application for individualized gait rehabilitation in PD. It increases “walk for exercise” duration thanks to high observance. This research was supported by a European grant: BeatHealth: Health and Wellness on the Beat for VC, DD, CL, AGi, VD, RV, EH, ED, ML, BB, and SB (EU FP7-ICT contract #610633).

In the sports and exercise domain, it has been suggested that musical intensity might boost performance. Previous research revealed that pumping up the volume of music might increase running speed, grip strength, and choice reaction time while simultaneously decreasing time to exhaustion and level of perceived exhaustion. However, evidence is still scarce, experimental designs and tested groups vary significantly, and contradicting evidence exists as well. Yet, listening to high-intensity music could be a risky business and exercisers employing such a strategy to improve performance are vulnerable to developing noise-induced hearing problems. Therefore, future research should inquire more profoundly into the inherent boosting qualities of musical intensity and juxtapose experimental results and auditory repercussions in order to uncover possible strategies to combine both in such a way that the exerciser's health can be safeguarded at all times.

Over the past decade, embodied music cognition has become an influential paradigm in music research. The paradigm holds that music cognition is strongly determined by corporeally mediated interactions with music. They determine the way in which music can be conceived in terms of goals, directions, targets, values, and reward. The chapter gives an overview of the ontological and epistemological foundations, and it introduces the core concepts that define the character of the paradigm. This is followed by an overview of some analytical and empirical studies, which illustrate contributions of the embodied music cognition approach to major topics in musical expression, timing, and prediction processing. The chapter gives a viewpoint on a music research paradigm that is in full development, both in view of the in-depth refinement of its foundations, as well as the broadening of its scope and applications.

Music is frequently used as a means of relaxation. Conversely, it is used as a means of arousal in sports and exercise contexts. Previous research suggests that tempo is one of the most significant determinants of music-related arousal and relaxation effects. Here we investigate the specific effect of music tempo, but also more generally, the influence of music on human heart rate. We took the pulses of 32 participants in silence, and then we played them non-vocal, ambient music at a tempo corresponding to their heart rates. Finally, we played the same music again, either with the tempo increased or decreased by a factor of 45%, 30%, or 15%; or maintaining the same tempo as in the first playing. Mixed-design ANOVA tests revealed a significant increase in heart rate while listening to the music as compared with silence ( p < .05). In addition, substantial decreases in tempo (-45% or -30%) could account for smaller subsequent heart rate reductions ( p < .05). We neither found links between increases in tempo (+15%, +30%, and +45%) and heart rate change, nor small decreases (-15%). In addition, neither effects of gender, music training, nor of musical preference were found. This indicates that during passive music listening, music exerts a general arousal effect on human heart rate, which might be regulated by tempo. These results are a major contribution to the way in which music may be used in everyday activities.

The use of music and specifically tempo-matched music has been shown to affect running performance. But can we maximize the synchronization of movements to music and does maximum synchronization influence kinematics and motivation? In this study, we explore the effect of different types of music-to-movement alignment strategies on phase coherence, cadence and motivation. These strategies were compared to a control condition where the music tempo was deliberately not aligned to the running cadence. Results show that without relative phase alignment, a negative mean asynchrony (NMA) of footfall timings with respect to the beats is obtained. This means that footfalls occurred slightly before the beat and that beats were anticipated. Convergence towards this NMA or preferred relative phase angle was facilitated when the first music beat of a new song started close to the step, which means that entrainment occurred. The results also show that using tempo and phase alignment, the relative phase can be manipulated or forced in a certain angle with a high degree of accuracy. Ensuring negative angles larger than NMA (step before beat) results in increased motivation and decreasing cadence. Running in NMA or preferred relative phase angles results in a null effect on cadence. Ensuring a positive phase angle with respect to NMA results in higher motivation and higher cadence. None of the manipulations resulted in change in perceived exhaustion or a change in velocity. Results also indicate that gender plays an important role when using forced phase algorithms: effects were more pronounced for the female population than for the male population. The implementation of the proposed alignment strategies and control of beat timing while running opens possibilities optimizing the individual running cadence and motivation.

The expressive features of music can influence the velocity of walking. So far, studies used instructed (and intended) synchronization. But is this velocity effect still present with non-instructed (spontaneous) synchronization? To figure that out, participants were instructed to walk in their own comfort tempo on an indoor track, first in silence and then with tempo-matched music. We compared velocities of silence and music conditions. The results show that some music has an activating influence, increasing velocity and motivation, while other music has a relaxing influence, decreasing velocity and motivation. The influence of musical expression on the velocity of self-paced walking can be predicted with a regression model using only three sonic features explaining 56% of the variance. Phase-coherence between footfall and beat did not contribute to the velocity effect, due to its implied fixed pacing. The findings suggest that the velocity effect depends on vigor entrainment that influences both stride length and pacing. Our findings are relevant for preventing injuries, for gait improvement in walking rehabilitation, and for improving performance in sports activities.