Corollary discharges and fatigue-related symptoms: the role of attentional focus

摘要

There must be a purpose for animals to act the way they do (Darwin, 1859). The brain commands the whole body through a sequence of neural outputs. When humans do not want to exercise, they simply stop, meaning that motivation plays a central role in exercise engagement (Marcora, 2008). However, there are physical and mechanical limits imposed by the human structure. Motivational stimuli such as music and video have been extensively used in the field of sport and exercise as a means by which to increase situational motivation with consequent impact upon exercise performance (Karageorghis et al., 2013; Hutchinson et al., 2015). When sensory strategies are used during exercise tasks, the exerciser initially reallocates his/her attentional focus to the stimulus. This attentional switching caused by the relevance of the stimulus can modulate psychophysiological variables over time (Razon et al., 2009). In such application, the sensory stimulus competes for attention (Rejeski, 1985); therefore, the human brain selects the most relevant signals and gives these the most attention (Treisman, 1964). The increasing exercise intensity forces the brain to focus on the signals of exertion, because those are considered as more relevant to finish the trial successfully (Hutchinson and Tenenbaum, 2007; Wittekind et al., 2011).