Emotional influences on sit-to-walk in healthy young adults

The purpose of this study was to investigate influences of emotional feelings on sit-to-walk (STW). Eighteen healthy young adults performed STW while feeling sadness, anger, joy and neutral emotion. Emotions were elicited using an autobiographical memories task. We used an optoelectronic motion capture system to collect motion data and assessed kinematics of STW. Emotion-related differences in STW kinematics were consistent with differences in movement speed. Compared to neutral emotion, sadness was associated with increased STW duration and phase durations, decreased peak forward and vertical center-of-mass (COM) velocity, increased drop in forward COM velocity, and increased forward and vertical normalized jerk score (NJS). Anger and joy were associated with decreased STW duration and phase durations, increased peak forward and vertical COM velocity, decreased drop in forward COM velocity, and decreased forward and vertical NJS compared to neutral emotion. Findings suggest that emotional feelings affect movement speed, hesitation, and movement smoothness during STW.     

Revisiting the level-of-service framework for pedestrian comfortability: Velocity depicts more accurate perceived congestion than local density

The evaluation of pedestrian comfortability is important for the construction and management of walkable spaces. Pedestrian level-of-service (LOS), which is mostly categorized by density, has been widely applied and is believed to be capable of indicating the comfortability of the crowd. However, there is a lack of evidence that physically measured LOS reflects psychological comfortability, let alone the comparison between the performances of different candidate indicators, including the velocity and different local densities. Here, we show that walking velocity depicts pedestrian perceived congestion more accurately than density. In our experiments on pedestrians in a room-egress scenario with an inner obstacle, we obtained objective physical trajectory data from video analysis as well as subjective perception data from a questionnaire survey. The performance of the velocity and four types of local densities in reproducing pedestrian perceptions were numerically evaluated. We found that the velocity outperformed the local density. The lower performance of local densities was mainly caused by the pedestrians located at the back of the crowd, who walked at lower velocities and perceived higher congestion, despite their lower local densities that would correspond to less crowdedness from a physical viewpoint. Besides, the perceived congestion of pedestrians was shown to be affected by the initial pedestrian positions at the crowd, the obstacle layout, and the pedestrians’ age and gender. Furthermore, we suggest that the larger the gap between the desired and actual velocities, the larger the extent of the perceived congestion. We expect that our findings will contribute to a more accurate evaluation of pedestrian comfortability, which could help improve the walkable spaces of various infrastructures.     

定量组织速度成像评价酒精性心肌损害左室功能的价值

为了评估定量组织速度成像(QTVI)在评价大量饮酒后心肌损害左室功能改变方面的价值,我们对饮酒量符合酒精性心肌病诊断标准患者21例(B组,每日饮白酒≥150g或啤酒4瓶,每周6天~7天,10年以上),30例健康志愿者(A组,正常对照组)进行常规超声参数及QTVI参数测定,包括:二尖瓣环收缩期峰值速度(Vs)、舒张早期运动速度(Ve)、舒张晚期运动速度(Va)等。结果显示,B组常规各超声参数与A组比较差异有显著性统计学意义(P0.01)。QTVI参数与A组比较Va减低(P0.05),Vs、Ve、Ve/Va显著减低(P0.01)。提示QTVI技术能够有效地评估酒精性心肌损害病左室功能的改变。     

Gait,balance, mobility and muscle strength in people with anxiety compared to healthy individuals

BackgroundAnxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders. Changes in psychomotor behavior can be observed in gross motor skills, with gait disturbances thought to reflect defective brain functions in psychiatric conditions. While balance deficits are well documented in anxiety, only little is known about gait characteristics of people with anxiety.ObjectiveThis study wishes to examine the existence of differences in gait, balance, mobility and muscle strength between people with anxiety and healthy individuals, and to investigate the relationship between level of anxiety and motor characteristics.MethodsAn observational study was conducted in a psychiatric out-patient unit at a large Israeli general hospital. The sample consisted of 93 participants, ages 18–65: 48 of them (27 female, 21 male) categorized as having anxiety, and 45 (25 female, 20 male) without anxiety. Participants were divided into two groups of various ages and both genders, and completed two questionnaires and four physical tests: objective anxiety assessment (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale); spatiotemporal gait parameters (10-meter walking test); balance function (Unipedal Stance Test); muscle strength evaluation, and mobility (Time Up and Go Test). No attempt was made to correlate between the anxiety and control groups based on age and/or gender.ResultsParticipants with anxiety (both genders) were characterized by slower walking speed, shorter step length, and fewer steps per minute (p < 0.001), as well as balance deficiency and mobility dysfunction (p < 0.001), compared to the control group. Muscle strength in women with anxiety was found to be significantly lower than in healthy women.ConclusionsTo the best of our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to examine spatiotemporal gait components in patients with anxiety. Based on the findings, there is room to consider implementing gait analysis into the physical examination of patients with anxiety, as well as muscle strength, balance, and mobility function. Correct assessment and proper treatment of these aspects might contribute to the well-being of patients with anxiety.     

Emotional states influence forward gait during music listening based on familiarity with music selections

Music elicits a wide range of human emotions, which influence human movement. We sought to determine how emotional states impact forward gait during music listening, and whether the emotional effects of music on gait differ as a function of familiarity with music. Twenty-four healthy young adults completed walking trials while listening to four types of music selections: experimenter-selected music (unfamiliar-pleasant), its dissonant counterpart (unfamiliar-unpleasant), each participant’s self-selected favorite music (familiar-pleasant), and its dissonant counterpart (familiar-unpleasant). Faster gait velocity, cadence, and stride time, as well as longer stride length were identified during pleasant versus unpleasant music conditions. Increased gait velocity, stride length, and cadence as well as reduced stride time were positively correlated with subjective ratings of emotional arousal and pleasure as well as musical emotions such as happiness-elation, nostalgia-longing, interest-expectancy, pride-confidence, and chills, and they were negatively related to anger-irritation and disgust-contempt. Moreover, familiarity with music interacted with emotional responses to influence gait kinematics. Gait velocity was faster in the familiar-pleasant music condition relative to the familiar-unpleasant condition, primarily due to longer stride length. In contrast, no differences in any gait parameters were found between unfamiliar-pleasant and unfamiliar-unpleasant music conditions. These results suggest emotional states influence gait behavior during music listening and that such effects are altered by familiarity with music. Our findings provide fundamental evidence of the impact of musical emotion on human gait, with implications for using music to enhance motor performance in clinical and performance settings.