Department of Psychology, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK.
Centre for Human Performance, Exercise and Rehabilitation, Brunel University London, London, UK.
Psychophysiology. 2023 Mar;60(3):e14192. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14192. Epub 2022 Oct 6.
Anxiety and balance and postural control are linked via common neural pathways, such as the parabrachial nucleus network. A laboratory-based model of general anxiety disorder (GAD) using the CO challenge, has potential to be used to observe this relationship, potentially mimicking subjective, autonomic, and neuropsychological features of GAD. The current feasibility study used the CO challenge to explore postural control changes in healthy adults. It was predicted that during the CO condition, participants would show increased postural sway path length and decreased sway stability, compared with a normal air breathing condition. To assess this, heart and breathing rate, quiet standing postural sway path length, sway dynamic stability, and subjective measures of emotion were measured either before and after or during and after the inhalation conditions. Results demonstrated that CO inhalation led to both an increase in sway path length and reduced sway stability compared to the air breathing conditions; the effect on sway path lasted after the inhalation of CO had ceased. Additionally, replication of HR and subjective measures of emotion were observed when comparing air and CO conditions. This provides experimental evidence that CO inhalation can affect balance, suggestive of shared mechanisms between anxiety and balance performance, as well as indicating that the CO model of GAD is suitable to look at changes in balance performance in healthy adults. Future use of this model to explore factors that can reduce the influence of GAD on balance would be beneficial as would a more detailed exploration of the neural pathways associated with the associated comorbidity.
焦虑与平衡和姿势控制通过共同的神经通路相关联,例如脑桥臂旁核网络。使用 CO 挑战的广泛性焦虑障碍 (GAD) 的基于实验室的模型具有用于观察这种关系的潜力,可能模拟 GAD 的主观、自主和神经心理学特征。当前的可行性研究使用 CO 挑战来探索健康成年人的姿势控制变化。预测在 CO 条件下,与正常空气呼吸条件相比,参与者将表现出更大的姿势摆动路径长度和降低的摆动稳定性。为了评估这一点,测量了心率和呼吸率、安静站立姿势摆动路径长度、摆动动态稳定性以及情绪的主观测量值,要么在吸入条件之前和之后,要么在吸入条件期间和之后。结果表明,与空气呼吸条件相比,CO 吸入导致摆动路径长度增加和摆动稳定性降低;CO 吸入停止后,摆动路径的影响仍然存在。此外,当比较空气和 CO 条件时,观察到 HR 和情绪主观测量的复制。这提供了实验证据,表明 CO 吸入会影响平衡,提示焦虑和平衡表现之间存在共同机制,并且表明 GAD 的 CO 模型适合观察健康成年人平衡表现的变化。未来使用这种模型来探索可以减轻 GAD 对平衡影响的因素将是有益的,更详细地探索与相关共病相关的神经通路也是有益的。