Emotions in motion: How movement may signal mental health issues

MedicalXpress | Mär 30, 2026

Research from a team at the University of Texas at Dallas shows the potential for detecting mental health disorders by analyzing the way a person moves. Using 3D motion capture and machine-learning models, researchers were able to identify elevated depression and anxiety symptoms in subjects from the way they walked and got up from a chair. The findings, published in Gait & Posture, demonstrate the potential for developing wearable devices that one day could give users early warnings about their mental health.