Journal of Physiological Anthropology最新文献

Background: This study summarizes anthropometric research that was conducted in two phases between 2015 and 2023. The aim of the first phase (2015-2016) was to map the current status of the height trend among adult high school students in the South Moravian region (the Brno-City District). The aim of the second phase (2016-2023) was to map the status of the height trend in three neighboring regions (Olomouc, Vysočina, Zlín) and to examine the relationship between body height, body composition, and some aspects of the students' lifestyle.

Methods: The study population consisted of 4655 individuals (2349 males, 2306 females) aged 18-22 from 71 high schools with a broad educational spectrum. The second phase of the research included 2045 individuals (1011 males, 1034 females) who completed questionnaires with questions about their lifestyle.

Results: Based on the measurements of body height in a sample of evenly stratified categories of high schools in the Brno-City District, we arrived at an average of 180.5 ± 6.8 cm in males (n = 1338) and 166.5 ± 6.3 cm in females (n = 1272) aged 18-20 years. The planned measurements of body height in the three remaining regions were not completed due to the COVID epidemic, but the total averages remained practically unchanged (180.3 ± 6.8 cm in males, n = 2326; 166.5 ± 6.4 cm in females, n = 2299). An analysis using linear mixed-effect models showed that body height was best predicted by dairy consumption in males and by school lunch attendance in females. Low % body fat was most strongly associated with physical activity, distantly followed by high parental education and daily school lunch attendance. In both sexes, height was inversely related to % body fat, but this relationship was not mediated by physical activity.

Conclusions: Taking into account other available data, it can be concluded that the secular trend of body height in the Czech Republic probably continues very slowly in males but stagnates in females. The inverse relationship between height and % body fat has an analogy in many other developed countries and suggests that a diet based on high-quality animal proteins should be the most effective strategy for supporting optimal physical development and preventing child obesity.

Background: Skin ageing is influenced by genetics, chronological age, and Sun exposure. Nasolabial folds are wrinkles prevalent among young ethnic Chinese participants in the Singapore/Malaysia Cross-sectional Genetics Epidemiology Study (SMCGES).

Methods: We analysed data from 4421 SMCGES ethnic Chinese young adults. Collected data included demographics, Sun exposure, Fitzpatrick Skin Type, and nasolabial fold presence, assessed using validated questionnaires and photo-numeric scales. Genetic data were obtained through SNP genotyping, imputation, and whole transcriptome sequencing. Buccal cell samples from 2776 participants across three sites (National University of Singapore [NUS], University of Tunku Abdul Rahman [UTAR], and Sunway University [SU]) were used for SNP genotyping, and peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples from 658 participants at NUS and UTAR for sequencing. Analyses were performed using HaploView, RStudio, and PLINK, integrating data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) portal, eQTLGen consortium, and NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus.

Results: Our GWAS identified SAMD5 as associated with nasolabial folds among individuals with regular Sun exposure. SAMD5 SNPs might modulate binding of microRNAs hsa-miR-216a and hsa-miR-485-5p, suppressing SAMD5 expression and promoting nasolabial folds. rs844607 increased odds of nasolabial folds (AOR = 2.67 [1.89-3.77], p = 2.27 × 10^-8) and forms a risk haplotype with 3'-end SNPs predicted as miRNA binding sites. The likely causal SNP, rs702344, strengthens miRNA binding (hsa-miR-216a: score 151, ΔG = - 19.64 kcal/mol; hsa-miR-485-5p: score 157, ΔG = - 22.36 kcal/mol), suppressing SAMD5 expression. eQTL data from GTEx (NES = - 0.72, p = 2.79 × 10^-52) and eQTLGen (Z = 6.16, p = 6.59 × 10^-6) supported this model. Lower SAMD5 expression was observed among chronologically aged individuals (GEO GSE200002, logFC = - 0.639, adj. p = 7.57 × 10^-3) and in untreated photo-aged dermal fibroblasts relative to retinoid-treated ones (GEO GSE294121, adj. p = 3.00 × 10^-2). SAMD5 promotes melanogenesis and UV protection; t-allele carriers showed 1.6-fold higher odds of melanin-poor burning skin types (95% CI 1.11-2.28; p = 0.012). Regular Sun exposure increased odds of nasolabial folds 1.26-fold (95% CI 1.08-1.46; p = 0.0028), whereas melanin-rich tanning skin types reduced the odds (AOR = 0.68; 95% CI 0.47-0.98; p = 0.048).

Conclusion: These findings support a model where rs702344 enhances miRNA binding, downregulates SAMD5, reduces melanogenesis, and promotes nasolabial folds in Sun-exposed young adults.

Background: This study examines whether acute psychosocial stress induced by the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) alters pressure pain threshold (PPT) in healthy university students. Furthermore, we investigated how overall social skills and its subscales relate to stress-induced changes in PPT and whether trait anxiety moderates these relationships.

Methods: A total of 34 healthy university students (14 males, 20 females; mean age = 21.2 ± 1.0 years) participated in the study. TSST was used to induce acute psychosocial stress. PPT, subjective stress, and autonomic activity (pulse wave amplitude and length) were assessed at three time points: pre, post, and 10-min recovery. Social skills were measured using the Adult Social Skills Scale, and trait anxiety was assessed using the STAI. Linear mixed-effects and regression models were applied to examine time effects and anxiety's moderating role.

Results: Subjective stress increased significantly immediately after TSST and returned to near baseline at the 10-min recovery. No significant changes were observed in pulse wave amplitude or length. A linear mixed-effects model revealed no significant main effect of time (F(2, 64) = 0.01, p = .99) or interaction between time and total social skills (F(2, 64) = 0.03, p = .97). A trend-level main effect of total social skills was observed (F(1, 31) = 3.28, p = .08), indicating that higher social skills were associated with greater PPT overall. Regression analyses of subscales revealed that only encoding skill exhibited a trend-level association with pre-to-post PPT change. A subsequent interaction model established a significant moderation by trait anxiety: the protective association of encoding skill with increased PPT was significant among low to average anxiety participants but not among high-anxiety participants.

Conclusions: Individuals with higher social skills, particularly those with effective encoding abilities and lower trait anxiety, exhibited greater pain tolerance under stress, although acute social stress did not produce an overall change in PPT. These findings suggest that social communication competence may serve as a resilience factor in stress-related pain modulation, although elevated anxiety levels may attenuate such benefits.

Background: Static muscle contraction involves two distinct load types. One type, called a position task, entails holding the limb in a fixed position while counteracting an inertial load, while the other type, known as a force task, involves exerting a consistent force against a solid constraint. While proprioceptive information has been shown to be required more during the position task, it has remained to be elucidated how sensorimotor integration differs between these two tasks.

Methods: This study investigated differences in short latency afferent inhibition (SAI) and heteronymous reflex responses between the force and position conditions. Sixteen participants performed static contractions of the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle. In the force task, they exerted a constant force corresponding to 10% maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) against a rigid restraint. In the position task, they sustained a target abduction angle of 20° while holding a load equivalent to 10% MVC. SAI was induced by the paired application of electrical stimulation to the right median nerve and transcranial magnetic stimulation over the left motor cortex at an N20 + 2 ms interval. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from the FDI muscle to quantify the magnitude of SAI. Heteronymous short and long latency reflexes (SLR and LLR) were also examined, and their amplitudes were compared between the force and position tasks.

Results: SAI was significantly attenuated in the position task (p < 0.05). Additionally, SLR and LLR amplitudes were significantly greater during position task (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: These findings suggest distinct sensorimotor processing strategies depending on the load type.

Background: Children are now introduced to sports at an early age, often beginning to learn complex movements between the ages of 3 and 5, which coincides with the formation of a body schema. Active inference theory suggests that the brain uses internal probabilistic models to assess the state of the body, adapting to sensory errors received from various sources. In preschool and primary school children, targeted sports training is thought to improve body awareness. We propose that targeted and prolonged sports training in preschool and primary school children develops specific features of body awareness that reflect the performance requirements of the corresponding sport. MAIN: Our experimental data confirmed age differences in postural oscillations during natural standing in children aged 5-9 years (n = 692) who were engaged in various sports, with similar data obtained by other researchers on a contingent of children not involved in sports. The studied parameters of athletes after 7 years were significantly different from those of younger children: radius (p < 0.001) and speed (p < 0.0001) of COP oscillations. The developed control model based on the active inference theory allowed identifying the body scheme as an internal cause explaining the experimental data in 8-year-old athletes with at least 3 years of experience: gymnasts have an inaccurate body scheme caused by errors in predicting the sensory effects of posture, which are compensated by motor hypercorrections; the body scheme of the team players is distinguished by balanced data from sensory sources; the inert body pattern of skiers is characterized by insufficiently accurate prediction of changes in movement conditions, which leads to energy-consuming corrections.

Conclusion: Our results show that the development of body schema in preschool-aged and primary school-aged children is closely related to multisensory integration and the specificity of the actions used in systematic sports. The model experiment demonstrated that practicing a certain sport forms the appropriate proportions between the modalities, determining the features of the internal body scheme of athletes of different specializations.

We conducted an epidemiological study of Tibetan highlanders in Tsarang Village, Mustang District, Nepal, and reported the findings in Arima et al. (Journal of Physiological Anthropology, 43:25, 2024). Subsequently, Sienna R. Craig and colleagues, who have conducted long-term research in the same region, published a commentary on our study, providing an opportunity for further scholarly discussion. In their commentary, Craig et al. highlighted differences between our study and theirs in the reference values used for disease classification, as well as the limited explanation provided in our article regarding the rationale for selecting these values. They further noted that these differences may have contributed to discrepancies in the summary and interpretation of population health indicators between the two studies. In this commentary, we seek to clarify the background and rationale underlying the reference values and analytical choices adopted in our study, and to discuss how differences in study design and population characteristics may influence prevalence estimates and interpretations of health status. Through this discussion, we aim to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of health assessment among Tibetan highlanders living at high altitude.

Background: Air temperature that is considered as cold varies according to individuals. Urban people who live in temperate climates are accustomed to mild cold with varying wind speeds, but relatively few studies have examined the effects of wind speed in mild cold on individuals wearing winter clothing, especially compared to studies conducted in severe cold environments. We examined thermoregulatory responses to varying wind speeds in mild cold, considering anthropometric characteristics of individuals.

Methods: Ten healthy males (23.9 ± 3.3 years in age, 175.8 ± 4.9 cm in height, 74.4 ± 7.0 kg in body weight) participated in the following four wind conditions (0, 2, 4.5, and 7 m·s^-1) at an air temperature of -5 °C (wind chill temperature: -5 to approximately -12 °C). Subjects wore winter clothing (I_T, 2.1 clo), and every trial consisted of 80 min (10-min rest, 60-min walking, and 10-min recovery).

Results: Rectal and gastrointestinal temperatures remained stable across all wind conditions, suggesting sufficient insulation from the winter clothing. However, peripheral skin temperatures decreased significantly with higher wind speeds (all Ps < 0.05), with finger temperature averaging 12.7 °C at 7 m·s^-1. Overweight subjects showed less frequent shivering than normal-weight subjects. Both body surface area (BSA) and body mass index (BMI) were negatively correlated with overall thermal comfort and positively correlated with shivering frequency (all Ps < 0.05). BSA was also negatively correlated with toe temperature (P = 0.001).

Conclusions: While typical winter clothing (2.1 clo) effectively maintains core temperature in wind chill conditions down to -12 °C, extremities, particularly the hands, require better insulation. Peripheral skin temperatures and thermal comfort provide reliable indicators for assessing cold stress. Morphological properties of the body also influenced cold responses, with overweight individuals exhibiting less frequent shivering and larger body surface areas correlating with greater cold sensitivity. These findings offer insights into optimizing winter clothing design to improve comfort and safety in windy conditions in mild cold.

Background: Somatotypes describe changes in body structure and allow estimations of biological differences and similarities between subjects. They can also highlight the relationship between body composition and risk factors for worsening health.

Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate lifestyle disease risk in adult men and women based on resting blood pressure and body composition. Somatotyping was used to determine body type as endomorphic, mesomorphic, or ectomorphic.

Methods: The study used the anthropological measurements of 344 subjects, 179 men and 165 women, to determine somatotype using the Sheldon method. Body composition analysis employed an electrical bioimpedance method, while a sphygmomanometer measured heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The study has been explicitly described as a cross-sectional study involving 344 adults aged 18-75 years (mean = 40.8 years), including 179 men (18-73 years, mean = 40.3 years) and 165 women (18-75 years, mean = 41.4 years).

Results: Men were more likely to be mesomorphic, and women were more likely to have an endomorphic somatotype. Individuals with a predominantly mesomorphic somatotype had higher total muscle mass. Furthermore, mesomorphs had the highest levels of body composition components (muscle, bone, fat-free mass, and water), and ectomorphs had the lowest. Generally, somatotype components correlated significantly with age, with a greater proportion of endomorphy and mesomorphy in older age groups. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference varied in women depending on somatotype. In men, BMI, waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) were also somatotype dependent, with similarly elevated values found in endomorphs and mesomorphs and lower values in ectomorphs. Resting blood pressure was associated with somatotype in women, while ectomorphy was negatively associated with risk factors for disease in older men.

Conclusions: Somatotype may provide complementary information to individual measurements for assessing biological risk and predisposition to disease among adults, especially women. As such, somatotype can be considered a useful and appropriate tool for describing health-related characteristics across different populations, including both healthy and diseased individuals.

Background: Body mass index (BMI) is a key indicator of population health and often shifts alongside socio-economic change. Few studies have tracked these dynamics over long periods in transitional economies. Russia's late-twentieth-century transformations offer a rare opportunity to examine such links. This study develops and validates a time-series model of BMI in 19 years old, relating changes in socio-economic and demographic indicators to BMI trends and producing scenario-based forecasts.

Materials and methods: We analyzed national time-series data published by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration for 1975-2016 (males and females, age 19), along with indicators of urbanization, fertility, infant and all-cause mortality, life expectancy, and nutritional proxies (protein supply, animal-source calories, meat). Predictors were standardized. Per sex, we estimated the following: (i) first-difference OLS, (ii) dynamic regressions with a lagged BMI term (ARDL(1,0)), and (iii) smooth-trend models with a natural cubic spline in year. Diagnostics included augmented Dickey-Fuller and Durbin-Watson tests. Model selection triangulated elastic net, partial least squares, and stepwise regression. Rolling-origin one-step-ahead forecasts used only information available at time t; bootstrap resampling assessed sign stability.

Results: Across specifications, the urbanization share was the most robust correlate of BMI. For males, higher urbanization was consistently and inversely associated with BMI; for females, the association was small and model sensitive (frequently negative but not uniformly significant). Effects of life expectancy and mortality attenuated and often lost significance once smooth time structure was included, indicating shared long-run movement rather than distinct short-run covariation; infant mortality added little independent signal. Nutrition proxies contributed limited, non-robust information. ARDL(1,0) one-step-ahead forecasts outperformed random-walk and trend-only baselines. Under a baseline scenario (continuation of recent socio-economic patterns), projected BMI in 2050 is approximately 26.6 kg/m² (males) and 26.7 kg/m² (females). Forecasts use only information available at time t (lagged predictors/nowcasts) and are conditional on assumed exogenous trajectories; longer-horizon projections are scenario based rather than unconditional.

Conclusions: After explicit treatment of nonstationarity, macrodemographic structure, especially urbanization, shows the most consistent links to BMI at age 19, whereas national-scale nutrition proxies are weak at this grain. Findings are descriptive, not causal; forecasts should be interpreted with caution. Incorporating finer-grained behavioral, dietary, and environmental data will help clarify mechanisms and improve long-term forecasting.

Background: Although males typically have longer limbs and greater muscle mass than females, previous studies have reported no significant sex differences in self-selected walking speed. This suggests that females may adopt alternative biomechanical strategies to compensate for their anatomical disadvantages. However, the specific mechanisms that enable females to achieve a walking speed comparable to males remain unclear.

Methods: One hundred and fifty-one young adults (76F,75M) performed a 3-min barefoot walking at their self-selected walking speed on a 10-m walkway. During walking, spatiotemporal gait parameters, vertical ground reaction forces, and foot and ankle joint kinematics were recorded. Anthropometric measurements and body composition were also obtained to assess physical capacity. Walking speed was compared between males and females, and contributing factors to walking speed were analyzed.

Results: Self-selected walking speed was not significantly different between sexes. However, when normalized by leg length, females exhibited significantly longer stride lengths and faster walking speeds than males (p < 0.05). Females also demonstrated greater ankle joint range of motion and walked with significantly greater ankle plantarflexion at toe-off, which likely contributed to increased forefoot pushing force. Additionally, females exhibited longer normalized stride lengths and faster stride times, resulting in faster normalized walking speeds compared to males.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that females compensate for relatively shorter limb lengths and lower muscle mass by relying more on distal joint flexibility and passively generated push-off power, particularly at the ankle. Females may also adjust stride length and stride time to achieve walking speeds comparable to males despite anatomical differences. Interventions aimed at modifying push-off strategies may enhance walking efficiency and could inform the development of targeted, sex-specific gait training programs.