SynthesisFrontiers in sports and active living2026
Effects of listening to music during aerobic exercise on performance, fatigue, and psychological responses in physically active adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in sports and active living, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Music is widely used in aerobic exercise, but its effects in physically active adults remain difficult to interpret because performance, perceptual, physiological, and psychological outcomes have often been examined separately. This review evaluated whether music-related interventions in aerobic exercise contexts are associated with performance, fatigue-related perceptions, physiological responses, and psychological outcomes in physically active adults. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCOhost, Scopus, ScienceDirect, CNKI, Wanfang Data, and VIP Database were searched from inception to March 3, 2026, without language restrictions. Experimental studies comparing music-related conditions with no-music or other non-musical controls in aerobic exercise were included. Two reviewers independently screened studies, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias; a third reviewer resolved disagreements. Meta-analyses were performed in Review Manager 5.4 using standardized mean differences (SMDs) or mean differences (MDs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Certainty of evidence was assessed using GRADE. Results: Fifteen studies involving 339 participants were included. Music was associated with better fixed-duration aerobic exercise performance (SMD = 0.39, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.70; I² = 30%), longer time to exhaustion in the primary analysis (SMD = 1.89, 95% CI 0.44 to 3.33; I² = 95%), lower rating of perceived exertion (SMD = -0.36, 95% CI -0.67 to -0.04; I² = 0%), and lower blood lactate concentration (MD = -0.86 mmol/L, 95% CI -1.45 to -0.26; I² = 57%). Heart rate was not significantly affected (MD = -1.16 beats/min, 95% CI -3.57 to 1.26; I² = 18%). GRADE certainty was moderate for rating of perceived exertion, low for fixed-duration performance, heart rate, and blood lactate, and very low for time to exhaustion. Conclusion: Music during aerobic exercise appears most consistently associated with reduced perceived exertion. Performance and physiological effects were more outcome-dependent and should be interpreted cautiously. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420261354074, identifier CRD420261354074.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.