• gait
• knee adduction moments
• speed

• attractiveness
• gait
• gait observation
• gaze behavior
• interpersonal cognition
• nonverbal communication
• self-expression
• structural equation modeling

• JP23K16747 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

• Humans
• Young Adult
• Emotions
• Fear
• Gait
• Pleasure
• Walking
• Male
• Female

• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

• Humans
• Emotions
• Standing Position
• Fear
• Happiness
• Walking

• MARIE SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE ACTIONS and Innovative Training Networks (ITN) SOCRATES = SOcial Cognitive Robotic Agents in The European Society

• autonomic nervous system
• emotion
• emotional response
• emotional state
• feeling
• limbic system
• postural control
• somatic nervous system

• Parkinson’s disease
• freezing of gait
• functional connectivity
• receiver operating characteristic curve
• regional homogeneity

• Postural stability
• assessment
• balance
• emotional awareness
• gait
• grounding

• Parkinson’s disease
• anticipatory postural adjustment
• cueing
• festination
• freezing of gait
• step initiation
• weight-shifting

• central nervous system
• emotion
• motor skills
• movement
• postural control

• Fear
• Postural threat
• Reaction time
• StartReact
• Stepping
• Wrist extension

• cognitive behavioural therapy
• cognitive physical therapy
• falls
• fear of falling
• postural anxiety

It is well-documented that emotional stimuli impact both the cognitive and motor aspects of “goal-directed” behavior. However, how emotional distractors impact motor performance remains unclear. This study aimed to characterize how movement quality was impacted during emotional distractors. We used a modified oddball paradigm and documented the performance of pure movement. Participants were designated to draw a triangle or a polygon, while an emotional stimulus was presented. Speed was assessed using reaction time and movement time. The quality and precision of movement were assessed by calculating the accuracy and root-mean-square error (RMSE). Compared to drawings of triangles, polygons had higher accuracy under negative stimuli, but lower RMSE under positive stimuli. The results indicate that distracting emotional stimuli impact different aspects of movement quality, with movement complexity influencing accuracy under negative distractors and precision under positive distractors. This study provides further evidence that movement precision is an important feature of emotional embodiment that should be incorporated in future studies.

• RMSE
• accuracy
• continuous movement
• discrete movement
• emotion

Individuals tend to approach positive stimuli and avoid negative stimuli. Furthermore, emotions influence whether individuals freeze or move more. These two kinds of motivated behavior refer to the approach/avoidance behavior and behavioral freezing/activation. Previous studies examined (e.g., using forced platforms) whether individuals' behavior depends on stimulus' valence; however, the results were mixed. Thus, we aimed to test whether emotions' effects on spontaneous whole-body behavior of standing individuals also occur in the seated position. We used a computer vision method to measure the head sway in video recordings that offers ease of use, replicability, and unobtrusiveness for the seated research participant. We analyzed behavior recorded in the laboratory during emotion manipulations across five studies totaling 932 participants. We observed that individuals leaned more forward and moved more when watching positive stimuli than when watching negative stimuli. However, individuals did not behave differently when watching positive or negative stimuli than in the neutral condition. Our results indicate that head movements extracted from seated individuals' video recordings can be useful in detecting robust differences in emotional behavior (positive vs. negative emotions).

• GAITRite
• ImPACT
• collision sports
• dual-task gait
• gait variability
• spatiotemporal gait parameters

• anticipatory postural adjustment
• anxiety
• emotion
• postural sway
• postural threat
• stepping

• Adult
• Age Factors
• Emotions
• Environmental Pollution
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation
• Pleasure

• auditory feedback
• forward model
• gait rehabilitation
• stroke

The purposes of this study are to investigate the regional homogeneity (ReHo) of spontaneous brain activities in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with freeze of gait (FOG) and to investigate the neural correlation of movement function through resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI).

A total of 35 normal controls (NC), 33 PD patients with FOG (FOG+), and 35 PD patients without FOG (FOG−) were enrolled. ReHo was applied to evaluate the regional synchronization of spontaneous brain activities. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed on ReHo maps of the three groups, followed by post hoc two-sample t-tests between every two groups. Moreover, the ReHo signals of FOG+ and FOG− were extracted across the whole brain and correlated with movement scores (FOGQ, FOG questionnaire; GFQ, gait and falls questionnaire).

Significant ReHo differences were observed in the left cerebrum. Compared to NC subjects, the ReHo of PD subjects was increased in the left angular gyrus (AG) and decreased in the left rolandic operculum/postcentral gyrus (Rol/PostC), left inferior opercular-frontal cortex, left middle occipital gyrus, and supramarginal gyrus (SMG). Compared to that of FOG−, the ReHo of FOG+ was increased in the left caudate and decreased in the left Rol/PostC. Within the significant regions, the ReHo of FOG+ was negatively correlated with FOGQ in the left SMG/PostC (r = −0.39, p < 0.05). Negative correlations were also observed between ReHo and GFQ/FOGQ (r = −0.36/−0.38, p < 0.05) in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) of the whole brain analysis based on AAL templates.

The ReHo analysis suggested that the regional signal synchronization of brain activities in FOG+ subjects was most active in the left caudate and most hypoactive in the left Rol/PostC. It also indicated that ReHo in the left caudate and left Rol/PostC was critical for discriminating the three groups. The correlation between ReHo and movement scores (GFQ/FOGQ) in the STG has the potential to differentiate FOG+ from FOG−. This study provided new insight into the understanding of PD with and without FOG.

• Parkinson’s disease
• freezing of gait
• movement function
• regional homogeneity
• resting-state fMRI

• Adult
• Aged
• Emotions/physiology
• Gait/physiology
• Gait Analysis
• Humans
• Mood Disorders/complications
• Mood Disorders/diagnosis
• Mood Disorders/physiopathology
• Nervous System Diseases/complications
• Phenotype

• II-3A-0409-10036 Department of Health

• Affect
• Emotion
• Gait velocity
• Motivation
• Movement
• Walking

Previous studies have reported that anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) associated with gait initiation are affected by emotion-eliciting images. This study examined the effect of the duration of exposure to emotional images on the APAs along the progression axis. From a standing posture, 39 young adults had to reach a table by walking (several steps) toward pleasant or unpleasant images, under two sets of conditions. In the short condition, the word “go” appeared on the image 500 ms after image onset and participants were instructed to initiate gait as soon as possible after the word go appeared. In the long condition, the same procedure was used but the word “go” appeared 3000 ms after image onset. Results demonstrated that the APAs were longer and larger for pleasant images than unpleasant ones, regardless of the condition (i.e., the duration of exposure to the images). In the same way, the peak of forward velocity of the centre of body mass (reached at the end of the first step) followed the same tendency. These results emphasized that APAs depended on image valence but not on the duration of images exposure and were consistent with those of previous studies and the motivational direction hypothesis.

• anticipatory postural adjustments
• duration of images exposure
• emotion
• gait initiation

• Emotion
• Gait
• Parkinson’s disease
• Pharmacological treatment
• Physical therapy

• Freezing of gait
• Parkinson's disease
• emotion
• gait initiation
• limbic system

Observing other people in action activates the “mirror neuron system” that serves for action comprehension and prediction. Recent evidence suggests that this function requires a high level codification triggered not only by components of motor behavior, but also by the environment where the action is embedded. An overlooked component of action perceiving is the one related to the emotional information provided by the context where the observed action takes place. Indeed, whether valence and arousal associated to an emotion might exert an influence on motor system activation during action observation has not been assessed so far. Here, cortico-spinal excitability of the left motor cortex was recorded in three groups of subjects. In the first condition, motor-evoked potential (MEPs) were recorded from a muscle involved in the grasping movement (i.e., abductor pollicis brevis, APB) while participants were watching the same reach-to-grasp movement embedded in contexts with negative emotional valence, but different levels of arousal: sadness (low arousal), and disgust (high arousal) (“Context plus Movement-APB” condition). In the second condition, MEPs were recorded from APB muscle while participants were observing static images representing the contexts in which the movement observed by participants in “Context plus Movement-APB” condition took place (“Context Only-APB” condition). Finally, in the third condition, MEPS were recorded from a muscle not involved in the grasping action, i.e., abductor digiti minimi, ADM, while participants were watching the same videos shown during the “Context plus Movement-APB” condition (“Context plus Movement-ADM” condition). Results showed a greater increase of cortical excitability only during the observation of the hand moving in the context eliciting disgust, and these changes were specific for the muscle involved in the observed action. Our findings show that the emotional context in which a movement occurs modulates motor resonance and that the combination of negative valence/high arousal drives the greater response in the observer’s mirror neuron system in a strictly muscle specific fashion.

• action observation
• context
• emotion
• mirror neuron system
• transcranial magnetic stimulation

• Arousal
• Avoidance motivation
• Distance regulation
• Postural control

• Aging
• Approach
• Avoidance
• Emotion
• Gait initiation
• Pedestrians

• Analysis of Variance
• Anger/physiology
• Emotions/physiology
• Facial Expression
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Photic Stimulation
• Psychomotor Performance/physiology
• Random Allocation
• Reaction Time/physiology
• Time Factors
• Time Perception/physiology
• Young Adult

• European Commission

• CNV
• Incentive
• LPP
• Motivation
• Motor preparation
• Parkinson's

Emotion influences parameters of goal-directed whole-body movements in several ways. For instance, previous research has shown that approaching (moving toward) pleasant stimuli is easier compared to approaching unpleasant stimuli. However, some studies found that when emotional pictures are viewed for a longer time, approaching unpleasant stimuli may in fact be facilitated. The effect of viewing duration may have modulated whole-body approach movement in previous research but this has not been investigated to date. In the current study, participants initiated a step forward after viewing neutral, high-arousal pleasant and high-arousal unpleasant stimuli. The viewing duration of the stimuli was set to seven different durations, varying from 100 to 4000 ms. Valence and arousal scores were collected for all stimuli. The results indicate that both viewing duration and the arousal of the stimuli influence kinematic parameters in forward gait initiation. Specifically, longer viewing duration, compared to shorter viewing duration, (a) diminished the step length and peak velocity in both neutral and emotional stimuli, (b) increased reaction time in neutral stimuli and, (c) decreased reaction time in pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. Strikingly, no differences were found between high-arousal pleasant and high-arousal unpleasant stimuli. In other words, the valence of the stimuli did not influence kinematic parameters of forward step initiation. Instead the arousal level (neutral: low; pleasant and unpleasant: high) explained the variance found in the results. The kinematics of forward gait initiation seemed to be reflected in the subjective arousal scores, but not the valence scores. So it seems arousal affects forward gait initiation parameters more strongly than valence. In addition, longer viewing duration seemed to cause diminished alertness, affecting GI parameters. These results shed new light on the prevailing theoretical interpretations regarding approach motivation in the literature, which warrants further examination in future research.

• affect
• arousal
• emotion
• exposure duration
• forward gait initiation

• Anticipatory postural adjustment
• Approach–avoidance behaviours
• Fear of falling
• Motivational direction
• Motor control
• Postural threat

• Attention
• Cognition
• Gait
• Rehabilitation

• Acoustic Stimulation/psychology
• Age Factors
• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Aging
• Attention
• Cognition
• Emotions
• Female
• Gait
• Geriatric Assessment
• Happiness
• Humans
• Male
• Pilot Projects
• Walking

• KL2 RR025749 NCRR NIH HHS
• UL1 RR025750 NCRR NIH HHS
• UL1 TR001073 NCATS NIH HHS
• R01 AG025119 NIA NIH HHS
• R03 AG042379 NIA NIH HHS

• COM velocity
• Emotion
• Gait initiation
• Kinematics
• Movement speed
• Sit-to-walk

• Accidental Falls/prevention & control
• Adult
• Biomechanical Phenomena
• Emotions
• Female
• Gait
• Humans
• Male
• Posture
• Random Allocation
• Reproducibility of Results
• Walking/physiology
• Young Adult

• Balance
• Center-of-pressure
• Emotion
• Gait initiation

• Parkinson’s disease
• basal ganglia
• beat perception
• gait rehabilitation
• music rehabilitation
• rhythmic auditory cueing
• rhythmic auditory stimulation

• approach-avoidance
• decision making
• emotion
• freezing
• learning

• Affective neuroscience
• Motor correlate
• Posturography
• Social neuroscience

• affordances
• common-coding
• extension
• fight-or-flight
• flexion
• pre-defined
• reference-frame

Depression involves a dysfunction in an affective fronto-limbic circuitry including the prefrontal cortices, several limbic structures including the cingulate cortex, the amygdala, and the hippocampus as well as the basal ganglia. A major emphasis of research on the etiology and treatment of mood disorders has been to assess the impact of centrally generated (top-down) processes impacting the affective fronto-limbic circuitry. The present review shows that peripheral (bottom-up) unipolar stimulation via the visual and the auditory modalities as well as by physical exercise modulates mood and depressive symptoms in humans and animals and activates the same central affective neurocircuitry involved in depression. It is proposed that the amygdala serves as a gateway by articulating the mood regulatory sensorimotor stimulation with the central affective circuitry by emotionally labeling and mediating the storage of such emotional events in long-term memory. Since both amelioration and aggravation of mood is shown to be possible by unipolar stimulation, the review suggests that a psychophysical assessment of mood modulation by multimodal stimulation may uncover mood ameliorative synergisms and serve as adjunctive treatment for depression. Thus, the integrative review not only emphasizes the relevance of investigating the optimal levels of mood regulatory sensorimotor stimulation, but also provides a conceptual springboard for related future research.

• affective neurocircuitry
• amygdala
• depression
• mood regulation
• physical exercise
• sensorimotor activation

Background: Emotional context may play a crucial role in movement production. According to simulation theories, emotional states affect motor systems. The aim of this study was to compare postural responses assessed by posturography and electromyography when subjects were instructed to imagine themselves in a painful or a non-painful situation.

Methods: Twenty-nine subjects (22.3 ± 3.7 years) participated in this study. While standing quietly on a posturographic platform, they were instructed to imagine themselves in a painful or non-painful situation. Displacement of the center of pressure (COP), leg muscle electromyographic activity, heart rate, and electrodermal activity were assessed in response to painful and non-painful situations.

Results: The anteroposterior path was shorter (p < 0.05) when subjects imagined themselves in a painful situation (M = 148.0 ± 33.4 mm) compared to a non-painful situation (158.2 ± 38.7 mm). Higher tibialis anterior (TA) activity (RMS-TA = 3.38 ± 1.95% vs. 3.24 ± 1.85%; p < 0.001) and higher variability of soleus (SO) activity (variation coefficient of RMS-SO = 13.5 ± 16.2% vs. M = 9.0 ± 7.2%; p < 0.05) were also observed in painful compared to non-painful situations. No significant changes were observed for other physiological data.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that simulation of painful situations induces changes in postural control and leg muscle activation compared to non-painful situations, as increased stiffness was demonstrated in response to aversive pictures in accordance with previous results.

• affiliation
• embodiment
• empathy for pain
• posturography
• socioaffective neuroscience

The control of balance is crucial for efficiently performing most of our daily motor tasks, such as those involving goal-directed arm movements or whole body displacement. The purpose of this article is twofold. Firstly, it is to recall how balance can be maintained despite the different sources of postural perturbation arising during voluntary movement. The importance of the so-called “anticipatory postural adjustments” (APA), taken as a “line of defence” against the destabilizing effect induced by a predicted perturbation, is emphasized. Secondly, it is to report the results of recent studies that questioned the adaptability of APA to various constraints imposed on the postural system. The postural constraints envisaged here are classified into biomechanical (postural stability, superimposition of motor tasks), (neuro) physiological (fatigue), temporal (time pressure) and psychological (fear of falling, emotion). Overall, the results of these studies point out the capacity of the central nervous system (CNS) to adapt the spatio-temporal features of APA to each of these constraints. However, it seems that, depending on the constraint, the “priority” of the CNS was focused on postural stability maintenance, on body protection and/or on maintenance of focal movement performance.

• Anticipatory postural adjustments
• Adaptability
• Voluntary movement
• Balance
• Biomechanics
• Motor control