The influence of perceived effort during fatiguing exercise is still not well understood. We therefore evaluated visual sensation of cycling road on performance during high-intensity ergometer exercise. Fourteen young male subjects (aged 20 to 32 years) each performed high-intensity square-wave exercise to exhaustion on an electrically braked cycle ergometer while simultaneously viewing one of three different cycling road animations: control (level) condition, up condition and down condition. The simulated speed was 4 m/s for each visual sensation. Initially, each subject performed a single high-intensity exercise trial (work rate: 100-105 % of peak VO2, pedaling rate: 70 rpm) to exhaustion while viewing a level road cycling animation. Each subject performed two more trials with the same work rate protocol, but after reaching 85 % of their control duration time, the level visual sensation was changed to up or down (randomized) until exhaustion. Pulmonary gas exchange and heart rate (HR) were measured continuously. The duration time in control condition was significantly shorter than up and down conditions (control: 175.1±8.7, up: 191.2.±10.9, down: 192.2±12.3 s). There was no significant difference between the duration time of the up condition and down condition. Interestingly, some subjects perceived the up condition as easier while others thought it was harder. Therefore, we regrouped our data and compared the duration times of those who perceived the visual sensation as easy versus those who thought it was hard, independent of visual sensation. However, 2 out of 14 subjects who perceived no different visual sensation between up and down conditions, were excluded from the comparison. Duration time of the easy trial was significantly longer than the hard trial (easy trial: 200.8±12.9, hard trial: 186.6±13.6 s, n=12) . These results demonstrate that high-intensity cycling performance can be altered by visual sensation input.

DESCENTE SPORTS SCIENCE Vol.34/THE DESCENTE AND ISHIMOTO MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION SPORTS SCIENCE