"LifeShirt" provides monitoring for mood study of athletes
Finally, some proof that exercise gets you pumped — sort of. A small study at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire tracked a group of 23 student athletes using the "LifeShirt," a form-fitting shirt that can be connected to meters that track over 30 cardiopulmonary functions. The goal of the study was to determine whether an athlete's mood affects their performance. Though the study was too small to be conclusive, it did find that "there was evidence for a decrease in negative affective states with increased vigor," which basically means the more people worked out, the less depressed they got. One thing the study did prove: diagnostic tools like the LifeShirt make it a lot easier to collect medical data, which explains why it's been used in studies ranging from this one to somewhat more sober research on subjects like abdominal pain and bipolar disorder. And, for the record, we assume that the guy in the pic to the right, from manufacturer VivoMetrics' web site, wasn't involved in the St. Anselm study — though he does look like he's ready to take on some of the student athletes.
[Via Near Near Future and Medgadget]
