No abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak has restricted the freedom of ordinary people, resulting in less activity and more negative emotions. Consequently, we proposed a motor imagery training procedure to intervene in the mental health problems of people with freedom restrictions. We conducted two studies. Study 1 had 176 participants, including 93 in the freely restricted group (Mage=19.66, SD=1.16), and 83 in the non-freely restricted group (Mage=21.4, SD=1.16). The freely restricted group had more negative emotions than the non-freely restricted group. Study 2 had 106 valid participants who were randomly divided into two groups with 48 in the experimental group (Mage=19.46, SD=0.87), who received motor imagery training, and 58 in the control group (Mage=19.41, SD=0.94), who did not receive motor imagery training. The posttest positive emotion scores were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the pretest, while the posttest positive emotion scores were lower in the control group than in the pretest. This result confirms that motor imagery training can effectively promote positive emotions of sequestered individuals during a pandemic. Our study provides a solution to reduce psychological problems, particularly the promotion of positive affect, in personnel with restricted freedom in COVID-19 sequestration, and in other personnel with restricted activities.

High-altitude exposure can negatively impact one’s ability to accurately perceive time. This study focuses on Chinese migrants who have traveled to the Tibetan plateau and explores the effects of high-altitude exposure on their time interval judgment abilities based on three separate studies. In Study 1, it was found that exposure to high altitudes negatively impacted the time interval judgment functions of the migrants compared with a low-altitude control group; they exhibited a prolonged response time (540 ms: p = 0.006, 95% CI (−1.70 −0.32)) and reduced accuracy (1080 ms: p = 0.032, 95% CI (0.06 1.26)) in certain behavioral tasks. In Study 2, the results showed that high-altitude exposure and sleepiness had an interactive effect on time interval judgment (1080 ms) (p < 0.05, 95% CI (−0.83 −0.40)). To further verify our interaction hypothesis, in Study 3, we investigated the time interval judgment of interactions between acute high-altitude exposure and sleepiness level. The results revealed that the adaptation effect disappeared and sleepiness significantly exacerbated the negative effects of high-altitude exposure on time interval judgment (p < 0.001, 95% CI (−0.85 −0.34)). This study is the first to examine the effects of high-altitude exposure on time interval judgment processing functions and the effects of sleep-related factors on individual time interval judgment.