Position-matching in the upper limb: professional ballet dancers perform with outstanding accuracy

Ramsay, Jill; Riddoch, M. Jane

doi:10.1191/026921501666288152

Cited by 58 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Enhanced stability might be a general feature of the advanced balance skill exhibited by dancers, as dancers have exhibited enhanced neuromuscular responses and proprioceptive sensitivity [1][2][3][4][5][6]. It is unclear whether greater postural coordination stability might be associated with speed of neuromuscular responses, but research does suggest these stability results could be related to enhanced proprioceptive sensitivity [16][17][18][19].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Balance experts, such as dancers, demonstrate balance enhancements due, in part, to faster and more consistent neuromuscular responses and enhanced proprioceptive sensitivity [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The basis of this expertise may reside in the establishment of coordinative structures (groups of muscles and associated neural, vascular, skeletal, and connective tissues, linked to behave as single autonomous units, i.e., muscle synergies [7]) that are sufficiently stable to allow highly exact control of postural control, while appropriately flexible to accommodate novel movement contexts.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Multi-segmental postural coordination in professional ballet dancers

et al. 2011

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Ballet dancers have heightened balance skills, but previous studies that compared dancers to non-dancers have not quantified patterns of multi-joint postural coordination. This study utilized a visual tracking task that required professional ballet dancers and untrained control participants to sway with the fore-aft motion of a target while standing on one leg, at target frequencies of 0.2 and 0.6Hz. The mean and variability of relative phase between the ankle and hip, and measures from cross-recurrence quantification analysis (i.e., percent cross-recurrence, percent cross-determinism, and cross-maxline), indexed the coordination patterns and their stability. Dancers exhibited less variable ankle-hip coordination and a less deterministic ankle-hip coupling, compared to controls. The results indicate that ballet dancers have increased coordination stability, potentially achieved through enhanced neuromuscular control and/or perceptual sensitivity, and indicate proficiency at optimizing the constraints that enable dancers to perform complex balance tasks.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Multi-segmental postural coordination in professional ballet dancers

et al. 2011

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“…Therefore, skilled dancers should have a more accurate position sense based on proprioceptive information, and should rely more on proprioception than on vision compared to non-dancers. Empirical evidence for this hypothesis has been found for dynamic equilibrium tasks among professional ballet dancers (Golomer & Dupui, 2000), and for position-matching tasks involving matching the hand location in space (Jola, Davis, & Haggard, 2011;Ramsay & Riddoch, 2001). In the latter, dancers performed significantly better than controls when only proprioceptive information was available.…”

Section: Control Of Equilibrium and Posturementioning

confidence: 99%

Neurocognitive control in dance perception and performance

et al. 2012

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Dance is a rich source of material for researchers interested in the integration of movement and cognition. The multiple aspects of embodied cognition involved in performing and perceiving dance have inspired scientists to use dance as a means for studying motor control, expertise, and action-perception links. The aim of this review is to present basic research on cognitive and neural processes implicated in the execution, expression, and observation of dance, and to bring into relief contemporary issues and open research questions. The review addresses six topics: 1) dancers' exemplary motor control, in terms of postural control, equilibrium maintenance, and stabilization; 2) how dancers' timing and on-line synchronization are influenced by attention demands and motor experience; 3) the critical roles played by sequence learning and memory; 4) how dancers make strategic use of visual and motor imagery; 5) the insights into the neural coupling between action and perception yielded through exploration of the brain architecture mediating dance observation; and 6) a neuroesthetics perspective that sheds new light on the way audiences perceive and evaluate dance expression. Current and emerging issues are presented regarding future directions that will facilitate the ongoing dialog between science and dance

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“…Consequently, dancers are expected to have an extremely advanced sense of awareness regarding the placement and motion of their bodies. Ballet students have been shown to score higher on specific position matching and balance tests when compared to normal controls [11,38]. While dancers have not previously been compared to other athletes, we feel that dancers should have heightened balance abilities based on the needs of their art and the studies comparing them to normals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%