AP32525

Science Summary

This study is about exercise,relaxation activities positively impact people with social anxiety disorders. Adam Heenan, Ph.D candidate in the Clinical Psychology, believes that exercise and relaxation changes the way people perceive the world by altering their perception so that they view the environment in a less threatening and negative way. Especially people with mood and anxiety disorders. Heenan used a point-light display in his research which was a deception of a human that was comprised of a series of dots representing the major joints. The display are depth-abigous. So an observer looking at the display could view it as facing toward them or facing away from them. Peoples who are socially anxious perceive the figures as facing toward them more often. Heenan examine whether people would perceive their environment as less threatening after engaging in physical or relaxation activities such as yoga. He learned that people who walked or jogged on a treadmill perceive these figures as facing toward them. Heenan believes that anxious peoples focus more on more threatening things in life. Some researchers believe this is how these disorders are perpetuated. (Barrett's Law #3) According to textbook (Lifespan and Development pg.348) anxiety disorders such as phobias which are learned involves a process of unlearning and the best way to accomplish this is to expose the person to the stimulas that she is afraid of and also a mood disorders such as depression, is treated by antidepressant and psychotherapy. So therefore exercise may be effective, but i think there needs to be more studies to back that up.

References:

The above story is based on materials provided by **Queen's University**. //Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.//


 * Journal Reference**:
 * 1) Adam Heenan, Nikolaus F. Troje. **Both Physical Exercise and Progressive Muscle Relaxation Reduce the Facing-the-Viewer Bias in Biological Motion Perception**. //PLoS ONE//, 2014; 9 (7): e99902 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099902

Queen's University. "Exercise, relaxation activities positively impact people with social anxiety disorders." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 July 2014. .

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