Purpose Virtual reality (VR) reduces experimental and clinical pain, but whether these effects extend to naturally occurring muscle pain (NOMP) during exercise remains unclear. This study examined whether immersive nature-based VR attenuates NOMP and improves motor performance during prescribed and self-regulated exercise. Methods Two within-participant crossover studies were conducted involving 12 (Study 1) and 24 (Study 2) h...

Anxious emotional states disrupt decision-making and control of dexterous motor actions. Computational work has shown that anxiety-induced uncertainty alters the rate at which we learn about the environment, but the subsequent impact on the predictive beliefs that drive action control remains to be understood. In the present work we tested whether anxiety alters predictive (oculo)motor control mechanisms. Thirty participants c...