Performance optimisation and rhythmical acoustic stimulation: Experimental evidences in track and field.

It is well known that a correct cognitive integration of visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and all the other perceptual cues leads to a more effective representation of our environment: Inter-modal integration plays a crucial role in sport performance as well as in everyday life. Although sport seems to be a highly visually dependent behaviour, and actually visual input tends to dominate above other input modality, we experimentally studied the role of auditory information, and its potential spin-off for enhancing the performance in track and field disciplines. We found that auditory information is an important feedback source for an accurate control of movement timing. Indeed, we can produce a motor performance acoustic representation, by which it is possible to analyse the temporal relationships that we consider as the basic units of human movement. One of the most relevant basic units of the motor action mental representation is the rhythmical structure of the movement itself: The rhythm provides a precise description of the temporal development of the whole action. Therefore, human movement temporal periodicity can be accurately represented by an acoustic stimulus having definite rhythmical characteristics. We used acoustic stimulation to implement an acoustic representation of a model performance with throwers, jumpers, and runners. Data show a strong standardisation effect and a significant improvement in athletes’ performance. Our results seem to be coherent with the literature claiming that auditory information is an essential factor in guiding motor action. This suggestion offers important indication to develop cognitive models about mental strategies in sport activities.