1.1. Exercise intensity and psychological responses
Simple patterns of movement such as walking are relatively easy for
the human brain to direct. During low-intensity exercise, individuals are
readily able to allocate attention to task-irrelevant cues such as auditory
and visual stimuli. The reallocation of attentional focus toward environmental (outward) distractions tends to evoke positive affective responses. However, as the exercise intensity increases, an
individual's attentional focus is forced toward task-relevant cues such
as the higher respiration rate and acidosis in the muscles (internal association/inward monitoring). Thus, exercise performed at a highintensity (i.e., beyond ventilatory threshold) normally elicits a decrease
in affective valence owing to the effects of fatigue on the affective regions of the brain . High-intensity exercise increases the emission of corollary discharges (parallel messages) to the brain regions associated with exertion. Fatigue-related symptoms cause a detrimental effect on
situational motivation, voluntary control of movements, and neural activation of the working muscles. Interestingly, Jones et al.)
identified that sensory stimuli can make exercise more pleasurable
even at high-intensities, meaning that audiovisual stimuli may partially
overcome the negative sensations elicited by increasing exercise
intensity.
The use of auditory stimuli during exercise has attracted considerable interest over the last two decades, and a psychologicallygrounded conceptual framework has also been proposed as a means
to further understanding of the antecedents, moderators, and consequences of music use during exercise . Thus, researchers and exercise professionals can take a more targeted and scientificallygrounded approach when using auditory stimuli in the exercise context.
Nonetheless, it is evident that the most potent effects manifest from a
combination of auditory and visual stimuli. Unfortunately,
the use of videos during exercise has only seldom been the subject of
scientific investigation .