Emotional state impacts center of pressure displacement before forward gait initiation.

Emotional states influence whole-body movements during quiet standing, gait initiation, and steady state gait. A notable gap exists, however, in understanding how emotions affect postural changes during the period preceding the execution of planned whole-body movements. The impact of emotion-induced postural reactions on forthcoming posturomotor movements remains unknown. We sought to determine the influence of emotional reactions on center of pressure (COP) displacement before the initiation of forward gait. Participants (N = 23, 14 females) stood on a force plate and initiated forward gait at the offset of an emotional image (representing five discrete categories: attack, sad faces, erotica, happy faces, and neutral objects). COP displacement in the anteroposterior direction was quantified for a 2 second period during image presentation. Following picture onset, participants produced a posterior postural response to all image types. The greatest posterior displacement was occasioned in response to attack or threat stimuli compared with happy faces and erotica images. Results suggest the impact of emotional states on gait behavior begins during the motor planning period before the preparatory phase of gait initiation, and manifests in center of pressure displacement alterations.

An fMRI study of differences in brain activity among elite, expert, and novice archers at the moment of optimal aiming.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated brain activity in elite, expert, and novice archers during a simulated archery aiming task to determine whether neural correlates of performance differ by skill level. BACKGROUND: Success in shooting sports depends on complex mental routines just before the shot, when the brain prepares to execute the movement. METHODS: During functional magnetic resonance imaging, 40 elite, expert, or novice archers aimed at a simulated 70-meter-distant target and pushed a button when they mentally released the bowstring. RESULTS: At the moment of optimal aiming, the elite and expert archers relied primarily on a dorsal pathway, with greatest activity in the occipital lobe, temporoparietal lobe, and dorsolateral pre-motor cortex. The elites showed activity in the supplementary motor area, temporoparietal area, and cerebellar dentate, while the experts showed activity only in the superior frontal area. The novices showed concurrent activity in not only the dorsolateral pre-motor cortex but also the ventral pathways linked to the ventrolateral pre-motor cortex. The novices exhibited broad activity in the superior frontal area, inferior frontal area, ventral prefrontal cortex, primary motor cortex, superior parietal lobule, and primary somatosensory cortex. CONCLUSIONS: The more localized neural activity of elite and expert archers than novices permits greater efficiency in the complex processes subserved by these regions. The elite group's high activity in the cerebellar dentate indicates that the cerebellum is involved in automating simultaneous movements by integrating the sensorimotor memory enabled by greater expertise in self-paced aiming tasks. A companion article comments on and generalizes our findings.

Emotional state affects gait initiation in individuals with Parkinson's disease.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the impact of manipulating emotional state on gait initiation in persons with Parkinson's disease (PD) and healthy older adults. Following the presentation of pictures that are known to elicit specific emotional responses, participants initiated gait and continued to walk for several steps at their normal pace. Reaction time, the displacement and velocity of the center of pressure (COP) trajectory during the preparatory postural adjustments, and length and velocity of the first two steps were measured. Analysis of the gait initiation measures revealed that exposure to (1) threatening pictures, relative to all other pictures, speeded the initiation of gait for PD patients and healthy older adults; (2) approach-oriented emotional pictures (erotic and happy people), relative to withdrawal-oriented pictures, facilitated the anticipatory postural adjustments of gait initiation for PD patients and healthy older adults, as evidenced by greater displacement and velocity of the COP movement; and (3) emotional pictures modulated gait initiation parameters in PD patients to the same degree as in healthy older adults. Collectively, these findings hold significant implications for understanding the circuitry underlying the manner by which emotions modulate movement and for the development of emotion-based interventions designed to maximize improvements in gait initiation for individuals with PD.

Emotions and ensuing motor performance are altered by regulating breathing frequency: Implications for emotion regulation and sport performance.

Breathing interventions have been shown to improve sport performance. Although evidence exists to support the role of perceived arousal as a critical underlying mechanism of breathing interventions, methodological differences in the literature preclude clear understanding of potential contributing factors to the effectiveness of such interventions. Under neutral contexts, we have demonstrated attention, dyspnea, and hindrance may need to be considered as mediators of how breathing frequency affects motor performance. We sought to extend our previous findings to determine how breathing frequency affects motor performance under varying emotional conditions. Participants (N = 35, Mage = 21.68, SD = 2.96; 20 females) performed slow, normal, and fast metronome-paced breathing while viewing pleasant and unpleasant stimuli prior to executing a pinch grip task. Performance was assessed via reaction time (RT), variability (V) and error (AE). Assessment of indices of perceived arousal included measuring heart rate variability (HRV) and visual analog scale responses. Visual analog scales were also used to assess attention, dyspnea, and hindrance. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed slow breathing increased RT and HRV compared to normal and fast breathing under emotional conditions (all p's < 0.05). Hierarchical multiple regression models revealed that decreased breathing frequency predicted increases in RT (ß = -0.25, p < 0.05) under pleasant conditions, while predicting increases in HRV for unpleasant conditions (ß = -0.45, p < 0.001). Increases in dyspnea (ß = 0.29, p < 0.05) and hindrance (ß = 0.35, p < 0.01) predicted increases in RT under pleasant conditions, while only increases in hindrance predicted increases in RT under unpleasant conditions (ß = 0.41, p < 0.01). Decreases in breathing frequency predicted increases in HRV under unpleasant conditions (ß = -0.45, p < 0.001). Overall, our findings suggest under varying emotional contexts breathing frequency differentially affects movement, potentially mediated by factors other than perceived arousal. In addition, these results inform the use of breath regulation as an antecedent emotion regulation strategy.

Recalling fearful memories modifies approach and avoidance behavior based on spatial context.

Motor responses are more efficient when there is a match (or congruency) between the motivational properties of an emotional state and the distance altering characteristics of the movement being executed to the emotion-eliciting stimulus. However, the role of spatial context in shaping motivational orientations to approach and avoid, particularly during whole-body movement tasks, remains less understood. We sought to narrow this knowledge gap by investigating whether an emotion (fear) relived from a previous experience affected movement initiation based on whether motor responses were implicitly coded as approach (i.e., incongruent) or avoidance (i.e., congruent) as per the location of the imagined threat stimulus. Participants (N = 29) completed a tone-initiated forward gait initiation task after recalling a previous fearful experience in which the stimulus from their memory was located either in front (incongruent) or behind (congruent) them. Facilitation versus inhibition of motor responses was indexed by reaction time (RT), displacement and velocity of postural movements prior to stepping, and step kinematics. Analyses revealed that participants initiating forward gait after recalling a fearful experience in which the fearful stimulus was congruent to the movement direction expedited RTs, greater displacement and velocity of anticipatory postural responses, and greater step length and velocity. Results provide support for the theoretical position that motivational orientations to approach and avoid are contextualized based on affective congruency, which includes the spatial orientation of real or imagined emotional stimuli. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Quiet eye and the Bereitschaftspotential: visuomotor mechanisms of expert motor performance.

Concurrent exploration of the Bereitschaftspotential (BP) and quiet eye period (QE) was implemented to assess potential mechanisms underlying psychomotor skills that differentiate expert and near-expert performers. Twenty golfers were classified by their USGA handicap rating as either a high handicap (HH; near-expert) or low handicap (LH; expert) to permit skill-based inferences. Participants completed 90 trials during which QE duration, BP activity, and putting performance were recorded. The application of single-subject analyses illustrated that LH golfers were more accurate and less variable in their performance than the HH group. Systematic differences in QE duration and BP were also observed, with experts exhibiting a prolonged quiet eye period and greater cortical activation in the right-central region compared with non-experts. A significant association between cortical activation and QE duration was also noted. The results of this investigation lend support to the motor programming/preparation function of the QE period. Practical and theoretical implications are presented and suggestions for future empirical work provided.

Fast breathing facilitates reaction time and movement time of a memory-guided force pulse.

Slow controlled breathing can be beneficial for performance of continuous and serial motor tasks. However, how controlled breathing influences discrete motor task performance remains unclear. We sought to determine the impact of paced breathing frequency on measures of movement initiation (reaction time: RT), accuracy (absolute endpoint error: AE; constant error: CE), and variability (trial-to-trial variability: V), in a goal-directed discrete motor task. We hypothesized slow breathing would be accompanied by faster RT, reduced AE and CE, and less V compared to faster breathing rates. Participants (N = 47) performed a memory-guided force pulse pinch task targeted at 10% of their maximum voluntary contraction while breathing at metronome-paced slow, normal, and fast frequencies. During each breathing condition, heart rate variability (HRV) as indexed by the standard deviation of 'NN' intervals (SDNN) was measured to ensure objective manipulation check of participants breathing at their set pace. Following each breathing condition, participants provided subjective ratings using the Affect Grid and Visual Analog Scales for arousal, hindrance, and dyspnea. Manipulation check results indicated participants correctly breathed at metronome paces, as indexed by increased HRV for slow breathing and decreased HRV for fast breathing. Results indicated that fast breathing reduced reaction time and movement time, and increased ratings of arousal, hindrance, and dyspnea. In contrast, slow breathing increased reaction time, and levels of hindrance and dyspnea were similar to normal breathing. Breathing frequency did not differentially impact accuracy or variability across conditions. Findings provide evidence that breathing frequency affects fundamental movement parameters, potentially mediated by factors other than arousal.

Familiarity with music influences stride amplitude and variability during rhythmically-cued walking in individuals with Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: Entrainment of walking with rhythmic auditory cues (e.g., metronome or music) induces gait improvements in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, evidence regarding acute impacts of music cues on parkinsonian gait is lacking. Findings in healthy adults imply that familiarity with music cues modulates stride amplitude and stride-to-stride variability; yet the role of familiarity with music on parkinsonian gait remains unknown. RESEARCH QUESTION: To investigate 1) whether familiar and unfamiliar music cueing differentially influences stride and arm swing amplitude and stride-to-stride variability, 2) how stride and arm swing amplitude and stride-to-stride variability are altered by enhanced familiarity with music by repeated listening and walking during rhythmically-cued walking in persons with PD. METHODS: Twenty individuals with idiopathic PD (mean age = 68.9 years, 7 females, H&Y stage 1-3) walked in time with familiar and unfamiliar music cues (Session 1). Participants then repeatedly listened and walked to the same familiar and unfamiliar music cues (Session 2). Spatiotemporal gait parameters in each 2-min trial were recorded with motion capture wearable sensors. RESULTS: In Session 1, gait velocity, stride length, arm swing peak velocity and range of motion, and stride-to-stride variability increased with both music cues compared with baseline; stride length, enjoyment and beat salience were greater in familiar than unfamiliar music cues. In Session 2, repeatedly listening and walking to unfamiliar music, but not familiar music, increased gait velocity, stride length, familiarity, enjoyment, and beat salience, and reduced stride-to-stride time variability. SIGNIFICANCE: Music cues in general induced acute improvements of stride and arm swing amplitude but not stride-to-stride variability, and enhanced familiarity with music improved stride amplitude and variability along with increased enjoyment and reduced cognitive demand in people with PD. Our findings aid in understanding the role of familiarity with music in alleviating gait disturbance and optimizing music-based interventions for PD.

Carrying Asymmetric Loads While Walking on a Treadmill Interferes with Lower Limb Coordination.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of different load carriage modes on coordinative patterns in the lower extremities during walking. Twenty-five university students walked on a treadmill at their preferred pace under three different load conditions: symmetric load (5% of body mass in messenger bags on each shoulder hanging vertically and against the hips), asymmetric load 1 (10% of body mass in a messenger bag on one shoulder hanging vertically against the ipsilateral hip), and asymmetric load 2 (10% of body mass in a messenger bag on one shoulder with the bag draped across the trunk to the contralateral hip). Altered thigh-shank and shank-foot couplings were found for the loaded side during the stance of gait when comparing the asymmetric 1 and 2 to the symmetric load. In addition, thigh-thigh coupling was changed during gait when comparing the asymmetric load 2 and symmetric load. However, we did not find any significant differences in intralimb and interlimb couplings between the two different asymmetric load conditions. The results suggest potential benefits when carrying symmetrical loads in order to decrease abnormal limb coordination in daily activities. Thus, it may be advisable to distribute load more symmetrically to avoid abnormal gait.

Evaluating attentional and affective changes following an acute exercise bout using a modified dot-probe protocol.

A large body of literature advocates exercise as a successful intervention for increasing positive affect while also reducing negative affect and anxiety. Questions concerning the mechanisms driving these effects remain unanswered, particularly considering theorized attentional adaptations that may be elicited by acute exercise bouts. We investigated pre- and post-exercise attentional bias to examine possible attentional explanations that may account for these reported changes in affect. On separate visits to the laboratory, 30 high trait anxious participants completed 30 min of exercise on a cycle ergometer at 70% of their heart rate reserve, or completed a 30-min quiet rest protocol. During each intervention, pre-test and post-test modified dot-probe assessments of attentional bias were completed, as were a series of self-report anxiety and affect questionnaires. Attentional bias scores and reaction times were calculated. Post-exercise dot probe performance did not vary significantly as a function of the affective valence of presented stimuli. As hypothesized, however, positive affect and reaction time improved significantly following exercise compared with the pre- and post-rest conditions and the pre-exercise condition, suggesting that exercise facilitates a broadening of attentional scope. Implications of these findings and future directions are discussed within the context of traditional and contemporary theories of dispositional affect and state-specific emotional responses.

Musical pleasure beneficially alters stride and arm swing amplitude during rhythmically-cued walking in people with Parkinson's disease.

Entrainment of walking to rhythmic auditory cues (e.g., metronome and/or music) improves gait in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Studies on healthy individuals indicate that entrainment to pleasant musical rhythm can be more beneficial for gait facilitation than entrainment to isochronous rhythm, potentially as a function of emotional/motivational responses to music and their associated influence on motor function. Here, we sought to investigate how emotional attributes of music and isochronous cues influence stride and arm swing amplitude in people with PD. A within-subjects experimental trial was completed with persons with PD serving as their own controls. Twenty-three individuals with PD walked to the cue of self-chosen pleasant music cue, pitch-distorted unpleasant music, and an emotionally neutral isochronous drumbeat. All music cues were tempo-matched to individual walking pace at baseline. Greater gait velocity, stride length, arm swing peak velocity and arm swing range of motion (RoM) were found when patients walked to pleasant music cues compared to baseline, walking to unpleasant music, and walking to isochronous cues. Cued walking in general marginally increased variability of stride-to-stride time and length compared with uncued walking. Enhanced stride and arm swing amplitude were most strongly associated with increases in perceived enjoyment and pleasant musical emotions such as power, tenderness, and joyful activation. Musical pleasure contributes to improvement of stride and arm swing amplitude in people with PD, independent of perceived familiarity with music, cognitive demands of music listening, and beat salience. Our findings aid in understanding the role of musical pleasure in invigorating gait in PD, and inform novel approaches for restoring or compensating impaired motor circuits.

Emotion and motor preparation: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study of corticospinal motor tract excitability.

In the present study, we examined whether preparing motor responses under different emotional conditions alters motor evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation delivered to the motor cortex. Analyses revealed three findings: (1) Reaction times were expedited during exposure to unpleasant images, as compared with pleasant and neutral images; (2) force amplitude was greater during exposure to unpleasant images, as compared with pleasant and neutral images; and (3) MEPs were larger while participants viewed unpleasant images, as compared with neutral images. Hence, coupling the preparation of motor responses with the viewing of emotional images led to arousal-driven changes in corticospinal motor tract excitability, whereas movement speed and force production varied as a function of emotional valence. These findings demonstrate that the effects of emotion on the motor system manifest at varying sensitivity levels across behavioral and neurophysiological measures. Moreover, they validate the action readiness component of emotional experience by demonstrating that emotional states influence the execution of future movements but, alone, do not lead to overt movement.

Chronic stroke and aging: the impact of acoustic stimulus intensity on fractionated reaction time.

In control samples, intense acoustic "go" stimuli accelerate the central and peripheral motor processes that compose simple reaction time movements. The goal of the current study was to determine whether movements that are initiated to intense acoustic cues facilitate simple reaction times in (1) adults with chronic stroke as compared to age matched controls and (2) in older as compared to younger adults. EMG and force data were collected from three groups (stroke, older adults, and younger adults) during a ballistic wrist and finger extension task. Movements were made to the onset of 80 dB and 107 dB acoustic cues and simple reaction times were fractionated into premotor and motor components. The present findings offer two important contributions to the literature. First, increases in stimulus intensity led to faster motor times in the impaired limb of stroke subjects. Second, increased stimulus intensity led to faster premotor reaction times across all groups, although an age rather than a stroke-specific motor deficit was evidenced, with the younger control group displaying significantly faster premotor times. Findings are integrated with previous evidence concerning post stroke corticospinal tract integrity and are interpreted via mechanisms which address stroke and age-related changes in motoneurons and activity in motor units.

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.

Emotional states alter force control during a feedback occluded motor task.

The aim of the current experiment was to determine the extent to which pleasant and unpleasant emotional states altered the ability of men and women to control force production on a feedback occluded motor task that was not direction specific. Participants produced a precision pinch grip with visual feedback. After 5 s, feedback was occluded and replaced with a pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral image. The amplitude, variability, and structure of force production were calculated. As expected, the removal of visual feedback led to progressive force decay. More important, relative to neutral conditions, pleasant and unpleasant emotional states led to greater force production, resulting in attenuated force decay. The variability and structure of force production were not altered by affective state. In addition, men and women performed similarly across all conditions for all measures. We conclude that when sustained force production is not directed toward or away from the body, pleasant and unpleasant emotional states similarly excite the motor system. Neurobiological mechanisms are proposed to account for these findings. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Emotional state and initiating cue alter central and peripheral motor processes.

Evidence indicates that voluntary and involuntary movements are altered by affective context as well as the characteristics of an initiating cue. The purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of central and peripheral mechanisms to this phenomenon. During the presentation of pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, and blank images, participants (N = 33) responded to auditory stimuli (startle, 107 dB startle or 80 dB tone) by initiating a bimanual isometric contraction of the wrist and finger extensor muscles. Analyses of electromyography and force measures supported the hypothesis that exposure to unpleasant images accelerates central processing times and increases the gradient of slope of peripheral movement execution. In addition, startle cues as compared with tone cues accelerated and magnified all temporal and amplitude indices. Collectively, these findings have noteworthy implications for (a) those seeking to facilitate the speed and force of voluntary movement (i.e., movement rehabilitation), (b) understanding the higher incidence of motor difficulty in individuals with affective disorders, and (c) those seeking to regulate emotional input so as to optimize the quality of intended movements.

Sensorimotor gating and anxiety: prepulse inhibition following acute exercise.

This investigation examined whether gating related deficits among individuals with high trait anxiety could be moderated by an acute bout of exercise. Low (LA) and high (HA) trait anxious participants engaged in either a quiet rest or an exercise session on separate occasions. Replicating previous findings, HA participants exhibited significantly reduced PPI at lead intervals of 30 and 60 ms relative to LA controls. HA and LA participants were also found to occasion similar PPI following exercise relative to quiet rest. This finding was found to be independent of the order in which quiet rest or exercise occurred, and was not a function of differences in raw startle blink amplitude between sessions. The current results highlight the potential for PPI to index the potential anxiolytic effects of an acute exercise bout.

Metabolic costs of daily activity in older adults (Chores XL) study: design and methods.

BACKGROUND: For over 20 years, normative data has guided the prescription of physical activity. This data has since been applied to research and used to plan interventions. While this data seemingly provides accurate estimates of the metabolic cost of daily activities in young adults, the accuracy of use among older adults is less clear. As such, a thorough evaluation of the metabolic cost of daily activities in community dwelling adults across the lifespan is needed. METHODS: The Metabolic Costs of Daily Activity in Older Adults Study is a cross-sectional study designed to compare the metabolic cost of daily activities in 250 community dwelling adults across the lifespan. Participants (20+ years) performed 38 common daily activities while expiratory gases were measured using a portable indirect calorimeter (Cosmed K4b2). The metabolic cost was examined as a metabolic equivalent value (O2 uptake relative to 3.5 milliliter• min-1•kg-1), a function of work rate - metabolic economy, and a relative value of resting and peak oxygen uptake. RESULTS: The primary objective is to determine age-related differences in the metabolic cost of common lifestyle and exercise activities. Secondary objectives include (a) investigating the effect of functional impairment on the metabolic cost of daily activities, (b) evaluating the validity of perception-based measurement of exertion across the lifespan, and (c) validating activity sensors for estimating the type and intensity of physical activity. CONCLUSION: Results of this study are expected to improve the effectiveness by which physical activity and nutrition is recommended for adults across the lifespan.

Emotion and movement: activation of defensive circuitry alters the magnitude of a sustained muscle contraction.

Understanding the emotion-movement relationship is crucial to the development of motor theory and movement rehabilitation recommendations for a wide range of diseases and injuries that involve motor impairment. Behaviorally, when movements are executed following exposure to emotional stimuli, evidence suggests that active defensive circuitry results in faster but more variable voluntary movements. However, each of the existing protocols has involved movement execution following the offset of anxiety or emotion eliciting stimuli. The specific aim of this study, therefore, was to determine whether the continued exposure to emotional stimuli would alter the magnitude and variability of a sustained motor contraction. During the presentation of pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, and blank images, participants (N=45) were instructed to respond to the onset of an auditory stimulus by initiating and then sustaining a maximal bimanual isometric contraction of the wrist and finger extensor muscles against two independent load cells (left/right limb). Corroborating previous evidence and supporting hypothesis 1, findings indicated that exposure to unpleasant images lead to an increase in mean force production. Variability of movement, however, did not vary as a function of affective context. These findings indicate that continued exposure to unpleasant stimuli magnifies the force production of a sustained voluntary movement, without sacrificing the variability of that contraction. Mechanism driven open and closed loop explanations are offered for these phenomena, implications are addressed, and future directions are discussed.

Emotions predictably modify response times in the initiation of human motor actions: A meta-analytic review.

Emotions motivate individuals to attain appetitive goals and avoid aversive consequences. Empirical investigations have detailed how broad approach and avoidance orientations are reflected in fundamental movement attributes such as the speed, accuracy, and variability of motor actions. Several theoretical perspectives propose explanations for how emotional states influence the speed with which goal directed movements are initiated. These perspectives include biological predisposition, muscle activation, distance regulation, cognitive evaluation, and evaluative response coding accounts. A comprehensive review of literature and meta-analysis were undertaken to quantify empirical support for these theoretical perspectives. The systematic review yielded 34 studies that contained 53 independent experiments producing 128 effect sizes used to evaluate the predictions of existing theories. The central tenets of the biological predisposition (Hedges' g = -0.356), distance regulation (g = -0.293; g = 0.243), and cognitive evaluation (g = -0.249; g = -0.405; g = -0.174) accounts were supported. Partial support was also identified for the evaluative response coding (g = -0.255) framework. Our findings provide quantitative evidence that substantiate existing theoretical perspectives, and provide potential direction for conceptual integration of these independent perspectives. Recommendations for future empirical work in this area are discussed.