Affect and prefrontal hemodynamics during exercise under immersive audiovisual stimulation: improving the experience of exercise for overweight adults

Objective: Affective responses to exercise are increasingly recognized as contributors to participation and adherence. However, research on methods of improving the affective experience of exercise remains limited, especially for low-active overweight or obese adults. Previous research has established that audiovisual stimulation, acting as attentional distractor, can enhance affective responses, even at vigorous intensity levels. We investigated the effectiveness of low-cost technology (virtual-reality headset and headphones) in improving affective responses over conventional audiovisual stimulation (screen and speakers). Methods: Twenty-one low-active and overweight adults (16 women, age: 34.67±9.62 years, body mass index: 28.56±4.95 kg/m²; peak V̇ O2 for men: 29.14±6.56 ml/kg/min; peak V̇ O2 for women: 22.67±4.52 ml/kg/min) completed three 15-min sessions of recumbent cycling at the intensity of the ventilatory threshold: (a) high immersion (HI), (b) low immersion (LI), (c) Control. Oxygenation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) was assessed with near infrared spectroscopy. Results: Higher pleasure was reported during HI than LI and control. Participants who reported a preference for low exercise intensity showed higher right dlPFC oxygenation during Control, but this difference diminished during LI and HI. Conclusion: Compared to conventionally delivered audiovisual stimulation, using a virtual-reality headset and headphones strengthens the dissociative effect, thereby further improving affect in response to exercise at the ventilatory threshold among overweight, low-active adults. Presumably by competing with intensifying interoceptive afferents at the level of sensory input, audiovisual stimulation may lessen the reliance on cognitive efforts to attenuate declining affect, as indicated by lower right dlPFC activity, particularly among participants disinclined toward high exercise intensity.