Improvement of Motor Task Performance: Effects of Verbal Encouragement and Music—Key Results from a Randomized Crossover Study with Electromyographic Data

Abstract

External motivational stimuli have been shown to improve athletic performance. However, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this improvement remain poorly understood. This randomized crossover study investigated the effects of music and verbal encouragement on measures of muscle excitation and myoelectric manifestations of fatigue in the biceps brachii and brachioradialis muscles during an endurance task. Fifteen untrained (mean age 29.57 ± 2.77 years) and 13 trained individuals (mean age 32.92 ± 2.90 years) were included. The endurance task, performed to exhaustion, consisted of keeping the dominant arm flexed to 90 degrees while holding a dumbbell loaded to 80% of 1RM with a supine grip in three randomized conditions: standard, with self-selected music, and with verbal encouragement. The untrained subjects showed an increase in task duration of 15.26% (p < 0.003) with music and 15.85% (p < 0.002) with verbal encouragement compared to the condition without external stimuli. There were no significant differences in the myoelectric manifestations of fatigue between the different conditions. Regarding the muscle excitation metrics, although the mean amplitude, peak value, and area under the curve remained unchanged across conditions, a significant reduction in the trend coefficient, indicating motor unit recruitment over time, was observed with both music (biceps brachii: −10.39%, p < 0.001; brachioradialis: −9.40%, p < 0.001) and verbal encouragement (biceps brachii: −7.61%, p < 0.001; brachioradialis: −6.51%, p < 0.001) compared to the standard condition. For the trained participants, no significant differences were observed between conditions in terms of task duration and outcome measures related to muscle excitation and myoelectric manifestations of fatigue, suggesting the possible presence of a ceiling effect on motivation. These results highlight the important role of external motivational stimuli, such as music and verbal encouragement, in improving task performance in untrained subjects, probably through more effective and efficient recruitment of motor units.