New neuroimaging research sheds light on how music can help people shield themselves from feelings of fatigue while exercising. The study, published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology, found that listening to music while exercising was linked to increased activity in a particular brain region.

“As a researcher I have always been interested in unravelling psychophysiological mechanisms. The effects of music on exercise have been systematically investigated for more than 100 years, and we are still not completely sure how music enhances exercise performance, assuages fatigue, and elicits positive affective responses,” said study author Marcelo Bigliassi of Brunel University London.

“I have spent the past decade trying to answer this research question and, finally, after a series of fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy), EEG (electroencephalography), and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) experiments, we can now understand how music is processed in the brain during exercise.”

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