Body Perception Research Articles

Virtual reality in managing Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS): a scoping review.

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a severe pain disorder that does not yet have a specific treatment. Patients with CRPS not only suffer from a wide range of symptoms that affect their quality of life but also present psychological affections to the way they see their body and specifically their affected limb. Virtual Reality (VR) modalities have become a targeted treatment for chronic pain and in the case of CRPS, may be a valuable approach to the mechanisms that affect these patients. Using the PRISMA Scoping Review guidelines, we intend to uncover the key information from the studies available about VR modalities in the treatment of CRPS. We focus on the improvement of pain levels, body perception disturbances (BPD), and limb movement/daily function. Our search strategy resulted in 217 articles from PubMed. Twenty were assessed for eligibility and seven were included in the final qualitative synthesis. Of these seven articles, we included a clinical trial, three pilot studies, a blinded randomized controlled trial, a crossover double-blind trial, and a randomized controlled trial. These studies provide important subjective patient findings, along with some statistically significant results in the experiences of VR therapies modulating pain, BPD, and improving limb movement/daily function. However, not all the studies included statistical analysis, and there are contradicting data found from some patients that did not perceive any improvement from VR therapies. We describe the results found in 7 articles that focus on the treatment of CRPS with VR modalities. Overall, the articles have various limitations, but the strategies related to immersive virtual reality, cardiac signaling, body switching and limb modulation have shown the most promising results for pain reduction and BPD improvement. These strategies reflect on pathophysiological mechanisms that are hypothesized to be affected in CRPS patients leading to the chronic pain and BPD that they experience. Not much evidence was found for improvement in limb movement and daily function. This review is a pathway for future studies on this topic and a more extensive data synthesis when more information is available.

Do Small Scars Lead to Better Results? Analysis of Long-term Outcomes and Satisfaction of Patients Undergoing Anchor-line Abdominoplasty Following Massive Weight Loss.

Do smaller scars lead to higher patient satisfaction? The aim of this study is to analyze long-term satisfaction of patients who underwent abdominoplasty after massive weight loss. Patients inclusion criteria: no previous abdominal remodeling procedures, previous bariatric surgery followed by a weight loss of at least 30 kg, weight stability for at least one year, good understanding of the Italian language and standardized pre- and postoperative photographs. We divided the population in 2 groups based on the surgical procedure: group 1, conventional abdominoplasty, and group 2, anchor-line abdominoplasty. All patients presented scars in the epigastric and mesogastric region resulting from previous laparoscopic or laparotomic bariatric surgery and/or other laparoscopic or laparotomic procedures. At least 2 years after surgery, we administered the Italian version of the post-operative BODY-Q module and the SCAR-Q questionnaire. We enrolled 20 males and 69 females aged between 25 and 55 years, with a mean follow-up of 2 years. Analyzing the questionnaires, it resulted that patients undergoing anchor-line abdominoplasty were significantly more satisfied in the body perception of the result (p = 0.035) and in the satisfaction with abdomen domain (p = 0.0015) compared to the conventional abdominoplasty group. Scars assessment with the SCAR-Q did not show any significant differences between the groups. Despite its long scars, the anchor-line pattern shows an overall higher satisfaction, due to the possibility of reducing the abdomen both cranio-caudally and circumferentially. These findings might be an important guide when approaching abdominoplasty in post-bariatric patients, debunking the myth "shorter is better". This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Predicting postpartum depressive symptoms by evaluating self-report autonomic nervous system reactivity during pregnancy

ObjectiveAltered self-reported autonomic reactivity is associated with worse mental health in the general population. Although dysfunctional changes in ANS during pregnancy have been investigated in relation to depressive symptoms, no studies addressed the relationship between self-report autonomic reactivity during pregnancy and depressive symptoms after the delivery. The present study aimed to assess the impact of prepartum self-reported autonomic reactivity on the development of postpartum depressive symptoms. MethodsIn this longitudinal study, 170 women were assessed during pregnancy (i.e., second or third trimester) and after childbirth (i.e., one month after the delivery). Self-reported autonomic reactivity was assessed through the Body Perception Questionnaire – Short Form that evaluates the autonomic functions related to organs above (i.e., supradiaphragmatic reactivity) and below (i.e., subdiaphragmatic reactivity) the diaphragm. In addition, prepartum and postpartum depressive symptoms were evaluated using the Patient Health Questionnaire – 9. ResultsFindings showed that higher prepartum supradiaphragmatic reactivity predicted higher depressive symptoms in the postpartum period (β = 0.112, p = 0.009) after controlling for prepartum depressive symptomatology and other potential covariates. ConclusionsEvaluation of self-reported autonomic activity may be a useful tool to identify antenatally women at risk of postpartum depressive symptoms. Future studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing the threat-responsive autonomic reactivity at rest and improving adaptive autonomic regulation to prevent postpartum depression.

Association of Self-Reported Autonomic Symptoms With Sensor-Based Physiological Measures.

Autonomic regulation of organ and tissues may give rise to disruptions of typical functions. The Body Perception Questionnaire Short Form (BPQ-SF) includes items that were developed to assess autonomic symptoms in daily life. This pair of studies aimed to establish previously unexplored psychometric properties of the BPQ-SF autonomic symptoms scale, develop normative values for clinical and research use, and assess the convergence of self-reports with sensor-based measures. Study 1 reports exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis on BPQ-SF autonomic symptom items from a large US population-based online study ( n = 2048). In study 2, BPQ-SF scores were examined for associations with heart period, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and skin conductance during seated leg lifts in a community sample ( n = 62). Study 1 results supported a two-factor supradiaphragmatic and subdiaphragmatic autonomic symptom solution (confirmatory factor analysis: root mean squared error of approximation = 0.040, Comparative Fit Index = 0.99, Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.99), although a one-factor solution also fit the data well (root mean squared error of approximation = 0.080, Comparative Fit Index = 0.99, Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.99). In study 2, heart period responses to leg lifts and rests were demonstrated at all autonomic symptom levels. However, low autonomic symptoms were associated with optimal autonomic nervous system patterns of activation and recovery to baseline levels. Moderate symptoms were associated with prolonged sympathetic activation. The highest symptom levels were associated with impaired autonomic nervous system coordination across activation and recovery. Results support the utility of self-reports of autonomic symptoms in research and clinical applications, with higher symptoms likely indicating autonomic impairment.

Sensory integration: the body perception in chan chuang practice

Chan chuang, a psychophysical practice renowned for its beneficial effects, has been favored by martial artists and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners since ancient times. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, chan chuang has garnered increased attention and recognition. However, existing research primarily focuses on the efficacy of chan chuang, rather than exploring the practice itself. Consequently, there is a dearth of scientific and experiential guidance available to current practitioners of chan chuang. To address this gap, the present study employs an in-depth interview method within a qualitative research framework, conducting follow-up interviews with eight martial artists who regularly engage in chan chuang practice. By gaining insights into the physical and mental states of these practitioners, this paper aims to elucidate their embodied experiences of chan chuang from the perspective of “body perception”. The findings reveal that the practitioners’ perception of their bodies during chan chuang practice can be characterized by three key aspects: stillness, naturalness, and qi. The sense of stillness signifies a state of tranquility in both body and mind. The sense of naturalness represents a harmonious equilibrium of body and mind, at times even resulting in a loss of self-awareness. Finally, the sense of qi conveys a serene mental state accompanied by the smooth flow of life energy and blood. These three dimensions guide chan chuang practitioners toward attaining physical and mental well-being.

Touching Back while Black: Self-Defence and the Politics of Black US Citizenship in Paul Green’s In Abraham’s Bosom

Considering the critical methods of performance studies, critical race studies, and sensorial studies, this article analyses the creation of social identities through the rubric of touch – a tactile sensibility that provides a cultural foundation for the mis perception of bodies as racialized subjects. Touch has been an under-researched and under-utilized methodology for understanding how race works. Specifically attending to the historical period of Jim Crow in the early twentieth century because of its deeply held investments in the politics of separateness, this article examines Paul Green’s 1926 Pulitzer Prize–winning play In Abraham’s Bosom as one of the rare dramas during this period that actually showed Black acts of touching back on the stage. Green challenges his audience to contend with an oppressive Jim Crow racial regime that forced African Americans to establish alternative modes of freedom outside of more traditional expressions of autonomy and citizenship. Reading Green’s work in this way allows for a consideration of the differing strategies at play in the fight toward equality for Black Americans. Taking up tactility, in the context of the United States, as a cultural system used to mark bodies as raced and weaponized to uphold white supremacy, this essay approaches touch as a performative act that is meaningful, effective, and consequential, thereby grappling with the present ways that American society underestimates the social, political, and cultural power that touch wields in our understanding of social identities.

Ecstatic or Mystical Experience through Epilepsy.

Ecstatic epilepsy is a rare form of focal epilepsy, so named because the seizures' first symptoms consist of an ecstatic/mystical experience, including feelings of increased self-awareness, mental clarity, and "unity with everything that exists," accompanied by a sense of bliss and physical well-being. In this perspective article, we first describe the phenomenology of ecstatic seizures, address their historical context, and describe the primary brain structure involved in the genesis of these peculiar epileptic seizures, the anterior insula. In the second part of the article, we move onto the possible neurocognitive underpinnings of ecstatic seizures. We first remind the reader of the insula's role in interoceptive processing and consciously experienced feelings, contextualized by the theory of predictive coding. This leads us to hypothesize that temporary disruptions to activity in the anterior insula could interrupt the generation of interoceptive prediction errors, and cause one to experience the absence of uncertainty, and thereby, a sense of bliss. The absence of interoceptive prediction errors would in fact mimic perfect prediction of the body's physiological state. This sudden clarity of bodily perception could explain the ecstatic quality of the experience, as the interoceptive system forms the basis for unified conscious experience. Our alternative hypothesis is that the anterior insula plays an overarching role in the processing of surprise and that the dysfunction caused by the epileptic discharge could interrupt any surprise exceeding expectations, resulting in a sense of complete control and oneness with the environment.

Responding to the mental health needs of children in a public health service in Brazil

The COVID-19 pandemic has further intensified the substantial demand for psychological treatment for children. However, in Brazil and various other nations, there is a lack of resources and evidence-based treatments focused on child mental health. Given this scenario, an evaluation of the efficacy of a pilot psychosocial group approach called "Operative Play Group" (OPG) was conducted within a public health service. This model aims not only to promote mental health but also to enhance equity through recognizing the social determinants of health. To measure behavioral problems, an analysis grounded in the principle of Intent-to-Treat was employed. However, this analysis did not demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention. Nevertheless, through comprehensive research of cases, it was found that the program positively impacted the internalizing issues observed in children. The OPG model presents a distinctive feature as it stands out as one of the few methods incorporating dance. Dance can foster the expression of emotions and expand bodily perception. The findings of this study suggest the feasibility and relevance of utilizing body movement and dance as practical components in psychosocial interventions.

Effect of a Body Part Action on Body Perception of the Other Inactive Body Part

The rubber hand illusion (RHI) is an illusory experience in which a fake rubber hand is felt as if it were one’s own hand when the visible fake and invisible real hands are stimulated synchronously. Although several studies have suggested contributions of action to body ownership using the RHI paradigm, the relationship between body ownership and agency has not yet been fully revealed. To better understand this relationship, the present study investigated the transfer of body ownership between body parts induced by a body part action. Using an RHI paradigm involving virtual reality, we tested whether a simple finger action of the dominant (active) hand can induce the embodiment of a virtual hand corresponding to the non-dominant (inactive) hand. We evaluated the illusory experience, perceptual changes, and physiological changes during the experiment with a subjective questionnaire, crossmodal congruency effect measurement, and skin temperature measurement, respectively. The results demonstrated that the finger action induced the embodiment of both virtual hands, causing a significant increase in agency of the inactive hand. This suggests that the illusory experience induced by an active body part contributes to an increase in agency as well as body ownership over the virtual body of the other inactive body part.

WTP8.9 3D volume assessment as an objective tool in breast asymmetry management

Abstract Background The normal symmetrical appearance of the breast is a vital. It can be psychologically distressing to patients and affects their body perception when these differences are obvious. The goal of breast surgeons is minimising these differences to make them more acceptable to patients. Methods This study was done on 20 females seeking breast asymmetry correction. Age ranged from 18 to 45 years (mean age: 30.4). All patients had volumetric breast assessment using a (3D) imaging system (3D LifeViz®, Quantificare system). The first 10 patients were chosen randomly for breast (MRI) volumetry to confirm the results of the 3D system. The patients were managed with different single-stage surgical procedures depending upon the objective assessment of the volume difference between their breasts. Results Breast volume assessment using the 3D camera was done in all 20 patients pre-operatively 30 and postoperatively. The preoperative mean volume difference was 159.45 cm3, and the postoperative mean difference was 16.75 cm3, with an overall reduction in mean volume difference of 89.5%. Breast MRI volumetry was done for 10 randomly chosen patients to confirm the results and ranged between 3 and 12 cm3 (average 7.1 cm3) on the right and 0 and 15 cm3 (average 6.3 cm3) on the left. Comparing the 3D camera and MRI in assessing breast volume difference showed that the difference ranged between 1 and 5 cm3 with an average of 2.4 cm3, which was not statistically significant. Conclusion The 3D technology is useful objective tool to augment the surgeons’ experience. It helped to achieve an 84.57% reduction in volume difference in managing asymmetry with single-stage procedure.

La Expresión Corporal para Mejorar en el Aprendizaje Instrumental y Vocal en Educación Primaria

In primary education, the musical training of future teachers with respect to their bodily perception requires a competency review and a curricular rethinking. Music, like any art, must be learned and taught from its global perception, in this sense, the body is a good tool for musical and vocal learning. Musicians, both teachers and students use the body as a tool of expression and communication, either in performance or in learning, for this reason, it is considered relevant that body expression is a part of musical education and training. Research in Dalcroze pedagogy in recent years shows that, although its activities are still basically those proposed in its beginnings, it is still a methodology that continues to bring improvements in teachers and students. Nevertheless, other studies related to music and the body point out the benefits of corporal expression for musical practice, learning and training, both in teachers and students. This paper gathers recent articles related to body expression and its benefits in music practice and teaching, not only as a result of performance but also for its cognitive benefits. The search for articles was carried out in repositories and databases such as SCOPUS and Web of Sciencie, limiting the year of publication to 2021-22, although some were also collected from other sources and through academic google. Those articles that could provide an answer to the hypothesis were chosen. A brief review of the latest Royal Decrees on Education from LOGSE to LOMLOE was also carried out. The information was completed through a brief survey with open and closed questions and aimed at experts in the field of teaching and musical interpretation, so that they could assess their perception of corporal expression. This survey was provided by google form and answered anonymously. The results indicate that research on body expression and rhythm is still needed. The conclusions point out that working on body expression in music education and training improves musical practice and other skills that are directly or indirectly related to performance, such as memory, stress, emotions or teamwork. In addition, the experts consider that the subject of corporal expression for musicians should be taught by specialists. Finally, and after the conclusions, a pedagogical proposal is suggested to be taken into account in teacher and student training, taking into account the different educational levels and contexts.

What Distinguishes Males With Sexual Dysfunction Who Present to Either Psychiatrists or Urologists?

Background Organic and psychological causes are intertwined in the etiology of sexual dysfunction (SD). Another important point, as well as the importance of etiology in the treatment of sexual dysfunctions, is understanding people's approaches to the problem. This study was planned to investigate whether there is a relationship between self-esteem and body perception levels of patients with sexual dysfunction and preferential applications to urology or psychiatry outpatient clinics. Methodology The study included 125 patients who sought treatment at urology and psychiatry outpatient clinics and were diagnosed with erectile dysfunction (ED) or premature ejaculation (PE) as a result of clinical evaluation. Sociodemographic data forms, the International Erectile Function Index (IIEF-6), the Premature Ejaculation Diagnostic Tool (PEDT), the Body Image Questionnaire (BIQ), and the Self-Esteem Rating Scale (SERS), were administered to the patients. Results When the patients were evaluated according to their complaints, there was no difference between the groups in body image or self-esteem. However, when the preferential admissions were evaluated through outpatient clinics, the self-esteem and body perception levels were high in the patients who applied primarily to the psychiatry outpatient clinic (p = 0.032, p = 0.046). Conclusion Psychological factors may affect male sexual dysfunctions in treatment admissions. It is important that andrology and psychiatry doctors work in cooperation in the treatment of sexual dysfunctions.

Exploring the potential of a standardized test in physiotherapy: making emotion, embodiment, and therapeutic alliance count for women with chronic pelvic pain.

There has been an increased use of standardized measurements in health care meant to provide objective information to enhance the quality and effectivity of care. Patient performance tests are based on standardized predefined criteria with a limited focus. When facing multifaceted health conditions, information expanding the predefined criteria in a standardized test may be required to understand the patient's complex symptoms. Relying on test information based on measurements according to functional biology, one risks missing information communicated by the sensitive and expressive body of the individual patient. The aim of this article is to investigate how body, self and illness perception is constituted as a co-construction between a physiotherapist and a patient with complex symptoms, expanding the use of a standard physiotherapy test. This qualitative study is based on video-recordings and in-depth interviews of seven women with the complex health condition chronic pelvic pain. The video recordings consist of the patients performing the Standard Mensendieck test pre- and post-treatment with Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy. The interviews are based on the patients` and the physiotherapists` conversations while watching and elaborating on these video recordings. Empirical data is analyzed within the theoretical perspectives of phenomenology and enactive theory, especially focusing on the concepts of embodiment and intersubjectivity. Taking an embodied approach, considering the body as expressive, communicative, and vulnerable to the environment and context, the results show that through bodily expressions the patients experienced the test situation as demanding, thus providing information beyond what the test was intended to measure. Additionally, when administering a standardized test, the interaction between the therapist and the patient had an impact on the results. Sensitive attention towards the patients bodily expressive emotions as a vital part of the interaction, reinforced therapeutic alliance by ensuring the integrity and autonomy of the patient. Mutual communication, gave new insights regarding the patients' complex symptoms and reinforced their belief in themselves and their recovery processes. Applying the patient's expertise on herself and her life together with the professional expertise may make health care an interdependent practice where sensemaking is a co-construction of meaning between the patient and the health personnel.

From child-peer similarity in imitative behavior to matched peer-mediated interventions in autism.

Self-consciousness develops through a long process, from pre-reflexive consciousness relying on body perception, to "meta" self-awareness. It emerges from the imitative experience between children and their peers. This experience linked to the capacity to test structural similarities between oneself and others, is addressed according to the concept of interpersonal affordance. We hypothesize that the opportunity for co-actors to engage in a process of interpersonal coordination is underlined by their similarity in terms of morphological, behavioral and motor features. This experience can sustain the emergence of new affordances for objects for each co-actor, as well as new affordances in terms of joint actions. We apply this idea in the context of peer-mediated interventions (PMI) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We argue that, in PMI, an encounter between children with autism and similar peers would foster the opportunity to engage in a spontaneous process of interpersonal coordination. This process would enable the development of self-consciousness and the emergence of perception of interpersonal, self and other's affordances for children with autism. We conclude that metrics to assess morphological, behavioral and motor similarity should then be defined and used in future studies to test our hypothesis in children with autism versus TD children or between children with autism.

Body Perception From Connected Speech: Speaker Height Discrimination from Natural Sentences and Sine-Wave Replicas with and without Pitch.

In addition to language, the human voice carries information about the physical characteristics of speakers, including their body size (height and weight). The fundamental speaking frequency, perceived as voice pitch, and the formant frequencies, or resonators of the vocal tract, are the acoustic speech parameters that have been most intensely studied for perceiving a speaker's body size. In this study, we created sine-wave (SW) replicas of connected speech (sentences) uttered by 20 male and 20 female speakers, consisting of three time-varying sinusoidal waves matching the frequency pattern of the first three formants of each sentence. These stimuli only provide information about the formant frequencies of a speech signal. We also created a new experimental condition by adding a sinusoidal replica of the voice pitch of each sentence. Results obtained from a binary discrimination task revealed that (a) our SW replicas provided sufficient useful information to accurately judge the speakers' body height at an above chance level; (b) adding the sinusoidal replica about the voice pitch did not significantly increase accuracy; and (c) stimuli from female speakers were more informative for body height detection and allowed higher perceptual accuracy, due to a stronger correlation between formant frequencies and actual body height than stimuli from male speakers.

Comparison of Different Weight Meshes in Ventral/Incisional Hernia Repair, the Outcomes of Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

The use of mesh is not without complications. Decreasing the mesh weight with the light-weight (LW) mesh may improve tissue growth and diminish mesh-related complications, yet, clinically, there are conflicting results regarding the influence of different weight meshes in ventral/incisional hernia repair. The aim of the present study is to compare the outcomes of different weight meshes for ventral/incisional hernia repair. The major databases (PubMed, Embase, Springer, and Cochrane Library) were searched, and all studies were published through January 1, 2022, using the keywords "heavy weight" "light weight" "mesh" "ventral hernia" "incisional hernia". All relevant articles and reference lists in these original studies were also obtained from the above databases. Eight trials (4 randomized controlled trials, 3 prospective studies, and 1 retrospective study) containing 1844 patients were included in the present meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that there was a significantly more rate of foreign body perception in the heavy-weight mesh group compared with the LW mesh group (odds ratio = 5.02, 95% CI: 1.05, 24.06). There was no significant difference concerning hernia recurrence, seroma, hematoma, surgical site infection, reoperation rate, chronic pain, quality of life, and hospital stay among different weight mesh groups. Different weight meshes showed similar clinical results in ventral/incisional hernia repair, except that, perception of foreign body was reported more frequently in the heavy-weight mesh group as compared with the LW mesh group. However, the long-term hernia recurrence with different weights of meshes needs to be reevaluated considering the relative short-term follow-up in these studies.

Neurodynamical model for IT responses during the anorthoscopic perception of bodies

Neurodynamical model for IT responses during the anorthoscopic perception of bodies

Mirror exposure following visual body-size adaptation does not affect own body image.

Prolonged visual exposure to large bodies produces a thinning aftereffect on subsequently seen bodies, and vice versa. This visual adaptation effect could contribute to the link between media exposure and body shape misperception. Indeed, people exposed to thin bodies in the media, who experience fattening aftereffects, may internalize the distorted image of their body they see in the mirror. This preregistered study tested this internalization hypothesis by exposing 196 young women to an obese adaptor before showing them their reflection in the mirror, or to a control condition. Then, we used a psychophysical task to measure the effects of this procedure on perceptual judgements about their own body size, relative to another body and to the control mirror exposure condition. We found moderate evidence against the hypothesized self-specific effects of mirror exposure on perceptual judgements. Our work strengthens the idea that body size adaptation affects the perception of test stimuli rather than the participants' own body image. We discuss recent studies which may provide an alternative framework to study media-related distortions of perceptual body image.

Correlation between body mass index, body perception and physical activity among university students

Background: With the current advancement in technology, sedentary lifestyles, and decreased physical activities, university students are highly prone to distorted body perceptions and obesity. However, limited studies have been conducted about body weight and body perception in university students studying in Pakistan. Objective: This research aimed to determine correlation between BMI, body perception and physical activity in university students. Methods: This is a correlational study. A sample size of 437 was calculated by online sample size calculator. Non-probability convenience sampling technique was used. The study was carried out in different universities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi and the tools such as International Physical Activity Questionnaire, Body Mass Index, and Figure Rating Scale were used. Data was analyzed using SPSS 22. Results: BMI and body perception showed significant moderate positive correlation (r=0.472, p=<0.05). Physical activity showed significant weak correlation with body perception and BMI (r=0.125 and 0.024, p=<0.05). Conclusion: It was concluded from the results of current study that students have misperceptions regarding their body weight but weight misperception was not a cognitive barrier in participants for physical activity and majority participants performed moderate to vigorous activities.

DIFFERENCES IN PERCEIVED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY CONSTRAINTS BETWEEN TURKISH AND 4TH GENERATION TURKISH-GERMAN YOUNG ADULTS

The aim of this study was to examine perceived leisure-time physical activity constraints between Turkish young people living in Germany and Turkey. The current study was conducted with a causal-comparative model to examine the differences in perceived physical activity constraints between Turkish youth living in Turkey and fourth-generation Turkish-German youth who grew up and lived in Germany. 196 young adults from Germany and 201 young adults from Turkey participated in this study. A 2-way Multivariate Analysis of Variance test was used to assess the effects of country of residence and gender background on perceived physical activity constraints. Analysis revealed that there was a statistically significant interaction effect between the country of residence and gender on perceived physical activity constraints of Body Perception, Facilities, Income, Family, Skill Perception, Time, Willpower, and Society. There was also a statistically significant simple main effect of country of residence on all subscales except the skill perception, and the significant simple main effect of gender on facilities, income, time, willpower, and society subscales. Young adults living in Turkey and female precipitants reported higher physical activity constraints compared to participants living in Germany and males. These differences might be associated with the differences in economic development and physical activity norms in Turkish and German societies. These factors are vital for the number of environmental and organizational opportunities to increase leisure-time physical activity participation.