Gait patterns and mood in everyday life: A comparison between depressed patients and non-depressed controls

Background Previous laboratory findings suggest deviant gait characteristics in depressed individuals (i.e., reduced walk- ing speed and vertical up-and-down movements, larger lateral swaying movements, slumped posture). However, since most studies to date assessed gait in the laboratory, it is largely an open question whether this association also holds in more naturalistic, everyday life settings. Thus, within the current study we (1) aimed at replicating these results in an everyday life and (2) investigated whether gait characteristics could predict change in current mood. Methods Werecruitedasampleofpatients(n=35)sufferingfrommajordepressivedisorderandasampleofageandgender matched non-depressed controls (n = 36). During a 2-day assessment we continuously recorded gait patterns, general move- ment intensity and repetitively assessed the participant’s current mood. Results We replicated previous laboratory results and found that patients as compared to non-depressed controls showed reduced walking speed and reduced vertical up-and-down movements, as well as a slumped posture during everyday life episodes of walking. Moreover, independent of clinical diagnoses, higher walking speed, and more vertical up-and-down movements significantly predicted more subsequent positive mood, while changes in mood did not predict subsequent changes in gait patterns. Conclusion In sum, our results support expectations that embodiment (i.e., the relationship between bodily expression of emotion and emotion processing itself) in depression is also observable in naturalistic settings, and that depression is bodily manifested in the way people walk. The data further suggest that motor displays affect mood in everyday life

Data from the paper: Valence and Arosual: A comparison of two sets of Emotional Facial Expressions

Supplementary material to our publication: Adolph, D. & Alpers, G.W. (2010). Valence and Arosual: A comparison of two sets of Emotional Facial Expressions. Amer J Psychol, 123: 209-219. Supplementary material in MADATA contains: Table 1: Valence and Arousal Ratings in response to Nim-Stim pics (Tottenham, N., Tanaka, J. W., Leon, A. C., McCarry, T., Nurse, M., Hare, T. A., Marcus, D. J., Westerlund, A., Casey, B. J., & Nelson, C. (2009). The NimStim set of facial expressions: Judgments from untrained research participants. Psychiatry Research, 168, 242-249.); Means (+ SD) of Valence and Arousal Ratings. Table 2: Valence and Arousal Ratings in response to KDEF pics (Lundqvist, D., Flykt, A., & Öhman, A. (1998). Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces. Stockholm, Sweden: Department of Neurosciences, Karolinska Hospital); Means (+ SD) of Valence and Arousal Rating

DIGESTER GAS - FUEL CELL - PROJECT

GEW has been operating the first fuel cell in Europe producing heat and electricity from digester gas in an environmentally friendly way. The first 9,000 hours in operation were successfully concluded in August 2001. The fuel cell powered by digester gas was one of the 25 registered ''Worldwide projects'' which NRW presented at the EXPO 2000. In addition to this, it is a key project of the NRW State Initiative on Future Energies. All of the activities planned for the first year of operation were successfully completed: installing and putting the plant into operation, the transition to permanent operation as well as extended monitoring till May 2001

Self-reported emotion regulation difficulties are associated with mood but not with the biological stress response to thin ideal exposure

BACKGROUND:Difficulties in emotion regulation have been related to psychological and physiological stress responses such as lower mood and lower parasympathetic activation (HF-HRV) under resting condition, but evidence on the potential link to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning and to physiological stress responses during a stress task is still scarce. The aim of the study was to investigate stress responses in young women when confronted to a daily stressor such as exposure to thin ideals and to understand the role of correlates of self-reported trait-like emotion regulation difficulties (ERD). METHODS:Heart rate variability (HRV) and salivary cortisol data were collected in a sample of 273 young women aged 18-35 with and without mental disorders during a vivid imagination of thin ideals (experimental condition) or landscapes (control condition). Changes in mood states were measured on a visual analogue scale (0-100). Correlates of trait-like ERD were self-reported using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). RESULTS:Participants with higher ERD showed a stronger decline in self-reported mood after vivid imagination of thin ideals compared to participants with lower ERD in the experimental condition but also a stronger increase of positive mood with increasing ERD in the control condition. ERD were not related to baseline HF-HRV or baseline salivary cortisol levels nor to any physiological response during and after the imagination of thin ideals. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION:The results corroborate the role of ERD regarding the immediate psychological impact of daily stressors. Exposition to daily stressors in the laboratory results in discrepant psychological and physiological reactivity. Future studies should investigate under what conditions the complex interrelations between immediate and long-term ERD and biological activation are amenable to assessment in a laboratory setting. The additive effects of multiple exposition to stressors, such as thin ideals in daily life, also need to be addressed