The Effect of Artificial Auditory Stimulation During an Endurance Activity on Recovery

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of increasing and decreasing auditory stimulation during shuttle run task on performance and recovery. Twenty-four participants were selected through convenience sampling (Mean age 19.35) and performed in four conditions including increasing frequency, constant frequency, decreasing frequency, and standard condition. Scores, heart rate and blood oxygen level at the end of the task, and the first, third, fifth, seventh, tenth and fifteenth minutes after performing task were measured. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was recorded at the first, fifth, tenth and fifteenth minutes after performing task. A Polar heart rate monitor and a Microlife blood pressure monitor were used to measure heart rate and blood pressure, respectively. A repeated measures analysis of variance was used to compare the research variables across the four auditory pattern conditions. The performance in the decreasing auditory condition was significantly better than in other conditions. Heart rate in all minutes after completion of the task was lower in decreasing and increasing conditions than in the constant and standard conditions and in tenth and fifteenth minutes after the completion of the task, in decreasing condition was significantly better than increasing condition. According to the results, auditory stimulation, especially with decreasing frequency, has a positive effect on performance and recovery of an endurance task. However, the long-term effects of this type of stimulation are not yet known and should be studied in future researches.