It is well known that there is a significant connection between physical activity and depression. However, other studies now show that there is a close relationship between walking patterns and depression such that patients suffering from major depression not only walked slower, but also had smaller arm-swing amplitudes, smaller amplitude of vertical movements of the upper body, larger amplitudes of lateral body sway, and a more slumped posture than healthy controls. Yet, changes in motor and activity levels can have profound effects on emotional information processing. As such, manipulations of the muscular-skeletal system can affect memory and cognitive processes.
In a study, researchers manipulated participants’ gait to adopt happy or depressed walking behaviors using the biofeedback method, measuring how many negative and positive words the participants recalled from a previously presented list of items. Participants were randomly assigned to the depressed or happy gait feedback and were asked to walk on the treadmill according to their assigned walking patterns. After walking for four minutes under biofeedback conditions, an experimenter read 40 terms randomly to the participants. While the participants were still walking, they had to recall as many words as possible. The participants were not aware of the main objective of the study and were instead told that the purpose was to determine the ability of people to change their gait patterns in response to real-time feedback.
As a result, there was a significant difference in the affective memory bias between the happy and depressed groups, such that the happier the person walked, the higher the proportion of positive self-relevant material recalled. By manipulating walking styles and patterns, biased memory towards self-referent negative material changed, thus, changing the central pathological mechanism of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). As such, in addition to increasing general activity levels, changes in gait patterns can affect the way people process negative and positive material, which can help those suffering from MDD. For this reason, being mindful of the way you walk can improve mood and memory bias recall. Furthermore, other studies have shown that fewer arm swings when walking is associated with a decline in memory and thinking while an unsteady walk can be an early sign of memory problems. Therefore, gait is important to be aware of as it is indicative of health issues relating to memory and cognition.
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ReplyDeleteI love this topic choice for your blog post, very interesting correlation! The link between gait patterns and depression shows how physical signs of MDD, like slower walking speed, reduced arm swing, and increased body sway, reflect neurobiological changes. In the study you mentioned, participants who adopted a "happier" gait recalled more positive words, while those with a "depressed" gait recalled more negative words. This suggests that physical posture and movement might influence how people process emotional information. If simple gait adjustments can alter memory recall, they might offer new, non-invasive ways to help those with MDD improve mood and reduce negative thinking.
ReplyDeleteSomething that I am curious about is whether or not these findings could also apply to other physical aspects of depression, such as posture or facial expressions, to affect emotional processing similarly? I found an interesting article examining the relationship between these 2 factors in a similar fashion:
Suslow, T., Junghanns, K., & Arolt, V. (2001). Detection of Facial Expressions of Emotions in Depression. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 92(3), 857-868. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.2001.92.3.857