The Impact of Body Position on Changes in Activation of the Nervous System

resumen

Daniela Benesova, Karel Svatora, Veronika Chocholouskova, Fabio Jimenez Zazo

Movement behaviour is the mediator of human interactions with the surrounding environment and this behaviour as well as body posture affects how well we do in a great number of psychomotor or sensomotor activities. The aim of our research wasto find out whether, or how, different body positions affect the activation of the autonomic nervous system.

A total of 64 university students (50% females), participated in this cross-sectional study.The activation level of an individual´s nervous system was measured by electrodermal activity in three basic positions: neutral position, “high power” position, and “low power” position, while in the “high power” and “low power” positions, two body positions were always chosen.

The results highlight the statistically and objectively significant differences in skin conductivity (electrodermal activity) between the “high power” and “low power” positions (p < 0.001). By merely adopting the “high power” body positions, electrodermal activity was significantly increased in comparison with the average size of electrodermal activity in the “low power” body positions.

We assume that the individual has a better chance to address successfully mental or movement tasks in the upright body posture (“high power” position).