The language of gait: interpreting emotional states through gait videos
Martina Putzolu, Elisabetta Sarasso, Elisa Canu, Andrea Gardoni, Elisa Ravizzotti, Susanna Mezzarobba, Silvia Basaia, Laura Avanzino, Massimo Filippi, Federica Agosta, Elisa Pelosin

TL;DR
This study shows that people can recognize emotions like happiness and fear from gait videos, even when facial expressions are hidden, suggesting potential for neurorehabilitation.
Contribution
The study introduces standardized emotion-specific gait videos as reliable stimuli for emotion recognition research.
Findings
Emotions like happiness, fear, and anger were recognized with over 90% accuracy from gait videos with blurred faces.
Disgust and surprise were harder to identify, and anxiety was often mistaken for fear.
Valence and intensity ratings matched intended emotions, especially when facial expressions were visible.
Abstract
Gait integrates sensorimotor and affective processes, serving both locomotor function and emotional expression. This embodiment framework has clinical relevance in neurodegenerative disorders and suggests potential for emotion-based modulation of gait. This study developed and tested a range of emotion-specific gait videos to assess whether healthy individuals could correctly recognize different emotions, in order to identify standardized stimuli for future research on emotion recognition and embodied simulation in neurological patients. We created a video questionnaire featuring an actress walking with gait patterns meant to convey eight emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anxiety, disgust, sadness, anger, and neutral. Her facial expressions were either visible or blurred to focus attention on body movements. Participants selected the recognized emotion from a list and rated its…
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Taxonomy
TopicsEmotion and Mood Recognition · Action Observation and Synchronization · Face Recognition and Perception
