Acute effects of aerobic exercise on mood

Thirty-two female students participated in a single-session experiment during which they carried out two 8-min trials of high-intensity exercise and two 8-min trials of low-intensity exercise. One high- and one low-exercise trial were accompanied by music; the other two trials were accompanied by metronome. Mood was assessed with a modification of the Profile of Mood States before and immediately after each trial. The purpose of the experiment was disguised to reduce the influence of subject expectations on mood responses. Participants were divided into fit and unfit groups based on heart rate responses during high-exercise trials. Overall, high-intensity exercise led to increases in tension/anxiety and fatigue, whereas positive mood changes (vigor and exhilaration) were seen following low-intensity exercise only. No group differences in mood responses were observed. Explanations of these results are considered in light of other literature concerning the acute effects of exercise on mood.     

The effects of exercise withdrawal on mood and inflammatory cytokine responses in humans

Mechanisms underlying the relationship between exercise and mood are not well understood. This study sought to investigate the role of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and autonomic balance in determining the impact of exercise withdrawal on negative mood. Healthy men and women who regularly exercised (N?=?26, mean age?=?25.5 years, SD?=?4.5 years) were randomised to exercise withdrawal or exercise maintenance for 2 weeks. Protocol adherence was monitored using accelerometers. Inflammatory markers from plasma (interleukin-6, IL-6; tumour necrosis factor-alpha; interleukin-10; and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist), heart-rate variability (HRV) and measures of mood (General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ) and the Profile of Mood States (POMS)) were assessed at study entry and at 2-week follow-up. Exercise withdrawal resulted in significant increases in negative mood over time on both the GHQ (p?=?0.028) and the POMS (p?=?0.005). Following the intervention, IL-6 concentration was lower in the exercise withdrawal than exercise maintenance condition (p?=?0.05). No intervention effects were observed for other cytokines or HRV. The mood changes were significantly related to changes in IL-6 concentration (β?=?-?0.50, p?=?0.011), indicating that reduction in IL-6 was related to increased negative mood. Our results are consistent with positive effects of exercise on mental health, but further research on inflammatory pathways is warranted.     

Effects of music on mood during bench stepping exercise

This study evaluated the effect of music on the mood of women during exercise. 16 middle-aged women, aged 49.9 +/- 7.53 yr., performed 60-min. bench stepping exercise while listening to Japanese traditional folk song, aerobic dance music, or nonmusic. The subjects reported significantly less fatigue with aerobic dance music and Japanese traditional folk song than with nonmusic. Aerobic dance music was associated with significantly more vigor and less confusion than nonmusic.     

A description of self-talk in exercise

Objectives. To examine the use of exercise-related self-talk. Specifically, the four Ws — where, when, what and why — of self-talk used by exercise participants were examined.Method. Exercisers (n=164) who indicated they used self-talk were asked where, when, what, and why they used their self-talk using an open-ended questionnaire. Over 95% of exercisers reported using self-talk with moderate frequency.Results. Exercisers used self-talk most often at their exercise location, during exercise. They reported using short phrases, neutral self-talk, and referred to themselves in the second person most frequently. Self-talk was used for both motivational (i.e., mastery, arousal, and drive) and cognitive (i.e., skill-specific and general) purposes.Conclusions. These results provide a basis for developing a framework for exercise-related self-talk research.     

Positive mood effects on delay discounting

Delay discounting is the process by which the value of an expected reward decreases as the delay to obtaining that reward increases. Individuals with higher discounting rates tend to prefer smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Previous research has indicated that personality can influence an individual's discounting rates, with higher levels of Extraversion predicting a preference for immediate gratification. The current study examined how this relationship would be influenced by situational mood inductions. While main effects were observed for both Extraversion and cognitive ability in the prediction of discounting rates, a significant interaction was also observed between Extraversion and positive affect. Extraverted individuals were more likely to prefer an immediate reward when first put in a positive mood. Extraverts thus appear particularly sensitive to impulsive, incentive-reward-driven behavior by temperament and by situational factors heightening positive affect.     

Caffeine effects on mood and memory.

The purpose of the present research was to assess whether a psychoactive dose of caffeine would have differential affects on the mood dimensions of arousal versus feelings of pleasantness and whether these mood alterations would influence memory either by (1) the experience of arousal at learning and/or (2) altered and congruent mood states at learning and recall. To address these questions, the administration of 5 mg/kg caffeine or placebo at learning and retrieval sessions was manipulated and subjects' mood was evaluated by several different self-report measures. Sixteen words were incidentally studied during the learning session and memory was evaluated by the number of words correctly recalled at the retrieval session two days later. Results revealed that caffeine reliably increased arousal, but did not affect any emotion dimensions related to feelings of pleasure. Subjects who received caffeine at learning and retrieval were also in equivalent mood states at both sessions. Moreover, caffeine did not produce any effects on memory; thus, neither hypothesis concerning the influence of arousal on memory was supported. These data show that caffeine is a useful method for manipulating arousal in the laboratory without influencing feelings of pleasantness or learning and memory performance.     

Moderating effects of mood monitoring on premenstrual dysphoria

Twenty-two self-reported premenstrual syndrome sufferers made 2-hourly ratings of affect and affect regulation for 31 days. Happiness and calmness were depressed during the premenstrual phase for high mood monitors but enhanced for low mood monitors. High mood monitors also reported increased use of reappraisal to regulate their premenstrual affect. However, the impact of the premenstrual phase on high mood monitors’ affect was not mediated by changes in affect regulation. These findings suggest that mood monitoring leads to both more negative interpretations of affect changes during the premenstrual phase and to parallel changes in regulation style.     

The effects of maternal mood on mother-infant interaction

The effects of depressed mood on mother-infant interaction were studied in 30 mother-infant dyads using the Velten mood induction procedure. It was predicted that maternal depressed mood would induce dysphoria in the infants, disrupt the infants' natural responsiveness to their mothers, and interfere with the mothers' ability to manage the interaction. In addition, it was predicted that such deficits would be the result of depressed maternal mood and not simply due to any change in maternal mood. The results indicated that the infants were sensitive to depressed mood and were less contingently responsive to their mothers than were controls. Also, mothers in the depression induction condition were less successful in eliciting positive responses from their infants than were controls. These results have implications for the development of a helplessness vulnerability in infants and for the two-way direction of effect present in depressed mother-infant dyads.This research was partially funded by NIMH grant MH39283 and a Spelman-Rockefeller Seed Grant awarded to Michael O'Hara. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Joan Blackwood, Nancy Clift, Lynda Field, Darla Hauf, Randy Ross, Jane Ugland, and Jim Vincent in the data collection. We also thank Richard R. Hurtig, John F. Knutson, Donald K. Routh, Robert A. Forsyth, and Carolyn E. Cutrona for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.     

Influence of aerobic and stretching exercise on anxiety and sensation-seeking mood state

This study randomly assigned participants to either an aerobic, non-aerobic, or lecture group to assess whether one bout of exercise would alter mood state. Regardless of experimental condition, changes in mood state were found on the Sensation Seeking and Anxiety State Tests, where sensation-seeking scores increased and anxiety state decreased from pre- to posttest.     

The short-term influence of high and low intensity physical exercise on mood

Abstract

This study was designed to replicate and extend previous observations that the acute response to high intensity exercise is an increase in anxiety and other negative feelings. Forty female volunteers were allocated to two conditions—20 exercised at high level (100W) for 1.5 min, while 20 exercised at a low level (ZW). The purpose of the experiment was disguised. Mood was assessed before. during and immediately after exercise, and over a 1.5-min recovery period. Subjects were subsequently divided into highly and moderately fit groups on the basis of cardiac responses to a standard workload. It was found that tensiodanxiety increased immediately after high intensity exercise, declining over the recovery period. A similar pattern was found for mental fatigue. During exercise itself, anxiety diminished in the low but not the high intensity condition, No differences between fitness groups were observed in these patterns, although highly fit subjects reported greater mental vigour and exhilaration than moderately fit subjects following high intensity exercise. The mechanisms that may mediate these responses are discussed.     

Motivated prediction of future feelings: effects of negative mood and mood orientation on affective forecasts

This article examines the role of motivational factors in affective forecasting. The primary hypothesis was that people predict positive emotional reactions to future events when they are motivated to enhance their current feelings. Three experiments manipulated participants' moods (negative vs. neutral) and orientation toward their moods (reflective vs. ruminative) and then assessed the positivity of their affective predictions for future events. As hypothesized, when participants adopted a reflective orientation, and thus should have been motivated to engage in mood-regulation processes, they predicted more positive feelings in the negative than in the neutral mood condition. This pattern of mood-incongruent affective prediction was not exhibited when participants adopted a ruminative orientation. Additionally, within the negative mood condition, generating affective forecasts had a more positive emotional impact on reflectors than on ruminators. The findings suggest that affective predictions are sometimes driven by mood-regulatory motives.     

Magnitude,timing and duration of mood state and cognitive effects of acute moderate exercise in major depressive disorder

BackgroundAcute exercise generally improves mood state and cognitive functioning in healthy adults. However, the impact of acute exercise on primary symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) is poorly understood. The present randomized cross-over study evaluated the magnitude, timing, and duration of the psychological effects of 30 min of moderate-intensity cycling exercise compared to quiet rest in 30 adults (21 female) with MDD.MethodsDepressed mood state (Profile of Mood States Short Form-Depression; POMS-D), state anhedonia (anhedonia Visual Analog Scale [VAS], and Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale [DARS]), and cognition (inhibition via Stroop and working memory via the 2-back task) were assessed pre, mid, post, 25-, 50- and 75-min after each session.ResultsGeneralized estimating equations demonstrated significant session by time interactions for POMS-D and VAS indicating small-to-large improvements in mood state and anhedonia up to 75 min post-exercise (p < 0.05; Cohen’s d ranges: POMS [-0.69, -0.95]; DARS, [-0.02, 0.16]; VAS [0.33, 0.83]) with greater immediate effects that lessened somewhat across time. For cognition, Stroop reaction time improved during exercise, but was worse at 25- and 50-min post-exercise compared to quiet rest (p < 0.05); no differences were found for 2-back reaction time.LimitationsThe small sample and continued psychological effects at 75 min indicate a potentially longer-lasting response than was measured herein.ConclusionPerforming short bouts of moderate intensity exercise appears to be effective for management of key symptoms (anhedonia, depressed mood state) in adults with MDD. The time immediately post-exercise may be ideal for performing emotionally challenging tasks and/or tasks where a low symptom severity would be helpful (e.g., psychotherapy).     

The effects of gender and response style on depressed mood

Research has shown that gender differences in the rate of depression may be accounted for by different response styles. To examine whether response style affects mood, depressed mood was induced in 31 females and 33 males (all Caucasian) who were then randomly assigned to either a ruminating or a distracting response task. The findings supported the response style theory as the ruminating group remained depressed after the response task, while the distracting group became less depressed. Gender was not a factor in this experiment as both men and women reacted similarly to the mood induction and the experimental tasks. Although clinical implication cannot be determined from a study involving nondepressed subjects, it can be concluded that ruminating about one's depressed mood is not an effective method for overcoming depression.     

The effects of mood upon imaginal thought

The effects of mood upon imaginal thought were explored with a highly trained undergraduate female hypnotic subject. She was hypnotically programmed to experience free-floating anxiety or pleasure in varying degrees just before the exposure of combinations of three Blacky Pictures, and to produce dreamlike imagery in response to the Blacky stimuli while under sway of the mood. Data from 98 dream trials, separated by amnesia, indicated that the affective states clearly influenced imaginal processes. Blind ratings by a psychoanalyst showed the anxiety moods to be more closely associated with primary-process features characteristic of nocturnal dreams, whereas pleasure had a relatively higher incidence of daydreamlike ratings. Empirical analysis of themes yielded significant relationships of anxiety to physical injury to the self and verbal aggression toward others; pleasure was associated with circular movements and overt sex themes.     

The effects of sad mood on memory in older adults: a test of the mood congruence effect

Mood congruence effects have long been studied in younger adults, but not in older adults. Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) suggests that mood congruence could operate differently in older adults. One hundred and nineteen younger and 78 older adults were randomly assigned to sad or neutral mood inductions, using combined Velten and music induction procedures. Results indicated that during sad mood induction both older and younger adults showed enhanced recall of sad words on delayed word list recall task and in autobiographical memory. However, only older adults displayed mood congruence effects on lexical ambiguity and lower recall of positive words in the word list task. Results provided partial support for developmental effects on mood congruence derived from SST.     

On bad mood and white bears: The effects of mood state on ability to suppress unwanted thoughts

Does temporary mood influence people's ability to engage in effective thought suppression? Based on past research on mental control and recent work on affective influences on social cognition, this experiment predicted and found that negative mood improved and positive mood impaired people's ability to suppress their thoughts when instructed not to think of a neutral concept, white bears. We also found clear evidence for ironic rebound effects: on a subsequent generative task, intrusions of the suppressed thought were greater in the negative than in the positive mood group. Participants received positive or negative feedback about performance on a supposed creativity task to induce positive or negative moods, and then engaged in two consecutive generative writing tasks, the first accompanied by instructions to suppress thoughts of white bears. Those in a negative group reported fewer “white bear” intrusions when attempting to suppress, but more “white bear” intrusions (an ironic rebound effect) in the subsequent task when the suppression instruction was lifted. The implications of these results for everyday tasks of mental control, and for recent affect–cognition theories are discussed.