The Influence Of Walking Gait Control On Executive Function And Its Physiological Basis In College Students With Depression: An FNIRS Stud

There are many studies on impaired executive function in depressed groups,but not many studies have studied to improve executive function in depressed groups from the perspective of gait manipulation.Sports psychology is a process of mental simulation of movement,without actual movements.Studies have shown that the prefrontal cortex is involved in gait motor imaging and gait control,but the evidence to support this view is inconsistent.This study aims to explore the relationship between executive function and walking gait in depressed college students through two experiments,verify whether walking gait control can improve the executive function of depressed groups,and use near-infrared technology to explore the physiological basis of walking gait control affecting executive function.Experiment 1 aimed to verify whether the depressed population with impaired executive function affected their physical and psychological walking performance.A total of 20 healthy college students and 20 depressed college students were included in the experiment.The two groups of participants walked along a 50-meter-long corridor in the same way as actual walking and mental walking,respectively,and measured and compared the time of participants’ mental walking and actual walking.The two walking styles alternate,and participants randomly started with either walking style.The second experiment aims to verify whether the manipulation of the head-held gait improves the executive function of depressed participants,and to understand the physiological basis of walking gait control affecting the executive function of depressed groups.It is divided into two parts: executive function test and near-infrared test.The executive function test uses the wired test Part B to test the participant’s executive function,and the wired test is performed before and after the walking gait manipulation to test the participant’s executive function level.The changes in blood oxygen activation were monitored while walking gait control,and participants were required to walk along the playground track with their heads held high and depressed gait imagining,and f NIRS technology was used to measure the prefrontal cortex activity of different mental walking gaits.Individuals with low executive function produce more TMT-B completion time than individuals with high executive function,which is consistent with previous studies.According to the ANOVA results of near-infrared blood oxygen data,our study did not conclude that the depressed group had a higher degree of prefrontal oxygen activation under the manipulation of the head-held gait,but the correlation analysis of the difference between the pre-and post-test test proved that the executive function of depressed participants under the high-chest gait was improved from behavioral data.Therefore,it is reasonable to conclude that the reason why the ANOVA results of the oxygen data were not significant may be related to the fact that the degree of depression in this study was not well controlled and the degree of depression and the duration of drug use.In summary,this study concludes that(1)the level of executive function is negatively correlated with an individual’s ability to walk.The depressed group with impaired executive function spent more physically and mentally walking than the normal population.(2)Walking gait control was significantly correlated with executive function and blood oxygen changes in the prefrontal cortex.(3)The level of executive function in the depressed group was significantly improved under the condition of holding the head and gait high.