Spike shape analysis of surface electromyographic activity in wrist flexor and extensor muscles of the world's fastest drummer

Tapping Performance of Professional and Amateur Darbuka Players

Motor skills of professional musicians can be regarded as a model to investigate human skill acquisition after prolonged practice. Although rhythmic tapping skills of musicians such as drummers and pianists were investigated previously, the tapping performance of hand percussionists is still largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the tapping performance of professional and amateur darbuka players. Three tapping tasks were performed: single-, double-, and triple-finger tapping tasks. The participants were asked to tap as fast as possible for 12 s in the single-finger tapping task while they tapped as fast and alternate/even as possible in the double- and triple-finger tapping tasks. The tapping speed and variability of inter-tap interval (ITI) and tapping amplitude were assessed for each task. In the single-finger and triple-finger tapping tasks, there was no significant difference in the tapping speed between the professional and amateur darbuka players. In the double-finger tapping task, the tapping speed was significantly faster in the professional players than the amateur players. Interestingly, the professional players showed faster tapping speed in both familiar and unfamiliar patterns of finger coordination. The tapping speed of the double-finger tapping task was significantly correlated with the duration and the age of commencement of darbuka training. The professional players also showed less variability of ITI and tapping amplitude compared to the amateur players. These results suggest that prolonged practice of the hand percussion increases the performance stability and coordination speed of both familiar and unfamiliar patterns.

MusicCohort: Pilot feasibility of a protocol to assess students' physical and mental health in a Canadian post-secondary school of music

Objective

Music-related physical and mental health conditions are common among post-secondary music students, with many studies reporting a prevalence greater than 70%. However, there is currently no consensus on appropriate, validated assessments for this population. The aim of this pilot study was to test the feasibility of an assessment protocol developed for a German longitudinal study with Canadian post-secondary music students, and to compare the health of music students to non-music students. Using a cross-sectional design, first-semester music and non-music control students were recruited at two campuses at the same university. Both groups completed questionnaires and physical testing, including range of motion, core strength, and pressure pain threshold. Nineteen music students and 50 non-music student controls participated in this study.

Results

The German protocol is feasible in a Canadian post-secondary setting. Canadian music students demonstrated similar health outcomes to those in the parent study. All participants demonstrated poorer mental and physical quality of life than the Canadian norms, though this was not statistically significant. The results of this study should be confirmed in a larger study. Future studies with larger sample sizes can provide further insight into the health of Canadian music students, providing a basis for prevention and intervention.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13104-021-05829-9.

Expertise- and Tempo-Related Performance Differences in Unimanual Drumming

BACKGROUND

High-speed drumming requires precise control over the timing, velocity, and magnitude of striking movements.

AIM

To examine effects of tempo and expertise on unaccented repetitive drumming performance using 3D motion capture.

METHODS

Expert and amateur drummers performed unimanual, unaccented, repetitive drum strikes, using their dominant right hand, at five different tempi. Performance was examined with regard to timing variability, striking velocity variability, the ability to match the prescribed tempo, and additional variables.

RESULTS

Permutated multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) revealed significant main effects of tempo (p < .001) and expertise (p <.001) on timing variability and striking velocity variability; low timing variability and low striking velocity variability were associated with low/medium tempo as well as with increased expertise. Individually, improved precision appeared across an optimum tempo range. Precision was poorest at maximum tempo (400 hits per minute) for precision variables.

CONCLUSIONS

Expert drummers demonstrated greater precision and consistency than amateurs. Findings indicate an optimum tempo range that extends with increased expertise.

Expertise-Related Differences in Wrist Muscle Co-contraction in Drummers

Background and Aim: Drumming requires excellent motor control and temporal coordination. Deploying specific muscle activation patterns may help achieve these requirements. Muscle activation patterns that involve reciprocal contraction of antagonist muscles are particularly favorable as they enable a high level of muscular economy while maintaining performance. In contrast, simultaneous contraction of antagonist muscles is an inefficient muscle activation pattern. In drumming, co-contraction can lead to increased movement variability and greater fatigue over time. In this study we examine how muscle activation patterns develop with increased drumming expertise. Methods: Eleven expert drummers (ED) and eleven amateur drummers (AD) were recorded using 3D motion capture while performing five different uni-manual and bi-manual repetitive drumming tasks across different tempi. Electromyography was used to record muscle activation of wrist flexor and extensor muscles. Results: Findings indicate that reduced co-contraction resulted in more even drumming performance. Co-contraction also increased in extremely slow and very high tempi. Furthermore, regardless of task or tempo, muscle co-contraction was decreased in participants with higher levels of expertise. In addition to anti-phasic activity of wrist flexor and extensor muscles, expert drummers exhibited a flexor dominance, suggesting more efficient usage of rebound. Conclusion: Taken together, we found that higher levels of drumming expertise go hand in hand with specific muscle activation patterns that can be linked to more precise and efficient drumming performance.

A Novel Interpretation of Sample Entropy in Surface Electromyographic Examination of Complex Neuromuscular Alternations in Subacute and Chronic Stroke

The objective of this paper was to develop sample entropy (SampEn) as a novel surface electromyogram (EMG) biomarker to quantitatively examine post-stroke neuromuscular alternations. The SampEn method was performed on surface EMG interference patterns recorded from biceps brachii muscles of nine healthy control subjects, fourteen subjects with subacute stroke, and eleven subjects with chronic stroke, respectively. Measurements were collected during isometric contractions of elbow flexion at different constant force levels. By producing diagnostic decisions for individual muscles, two categories of abnormalities in some paretic muscles were discriminated in terms of abnormally increased and decreased SampEn. The efficiency of the SampEn was demonstrated by its comparable performance with a previously reported clustering index (CI) method. Mixed SampEn (or CI) patterns were observed in paretic muscles of subjects with stroke indicating complex neuromuscular changes at work as a result of a hemispheric brain lesion. Although both categories of SampEn (or CI) abnormalities were observed in both subacute and chronic stages of stroke, the underlying processes contributing to the SampEn abnormalities might vary a lot in stroke stage. The SampEn abnormalities were also found in contralateral muscles of subjects with chronic stroke indicating the necessity of applying interventions to contralateral muscles during stroke rehabilitation. Our work not only presents a novel method for quantitative examination of neuromuscular changes, but also explains the neuropathological mechanisms of motor impairments and offers guidelines for a better design of effective rehabilitation protocols toward improved motor recovery.

Finger-to-Beat Coordination Skill of Non-dancers, Street Dancers, and the World Champion of a Street-Dance Competition

The coordination of body movements to a musical beat is a common feature of many dance styles. However, the auditory-motor coordination skills of dancers remain largely uninvestigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the auditory-motor coordination skills of non-dancers, street dancers, and the winner of a celebrated international street dance competition, while coordinating their rhythmic finger movements to a beat. The beat rate of a metronome increased from 1.0 to 3.7 Hz. The participants were asked to either flex or extend their index fingers on the beat in each condition. Under the extend-on-the-beat condition, both the dancers and non-dancers showed a spontaneous transition from the extend-on-the-beat to the flex-on-the-beat or to a phase wandering pattern. However, the critical frequency at which the transition occurred was significantly higher in the dancers (3.3 Hz) than in the non-dancers (2.6 Hz). Under the flex-on-the-beat condition, the dancers were able to maintain their coordination pattern more stably at high beat rates compared to the non-dancers. Furthermore, the world champion matched the timing of movement peak velocity to the beat across the different beat rates. This may give a sense of unity between the movement and the beat for the audience because the peak velocity of the rhythmic movement works as a temporal cue for the audiovisual synchrony perception. These results suggest that the skills of accomplished dancers lie in their small finger movements and that the sensorimotor learning of street dance is characterized by a stabilization of the coordination patterns, including the inhibition of an unintentional transition to other coordination patterns.

Flexibility of movement organization in piano performance

Piano performance involves a large repertoire of highly skilled movements. The acquisition of these exceptional skills despite innate neural and biomechanical constraints requires a sophisticated interaction between plasticity of the neural system and organization of a redundant number of degrees of freedom (DOF) in the motor system. Neuroplasticity subserving virtuosity of pianists has been documented in neuroimaging studies investigating effects of long-term piano training on structure and function of the cortical and subcortical regions. By contrast, recent behavioral studies have advanced the understanding of neuromuscular strategies and biomechanical principles behind the movement organization that enables skilled piano performance. Here we review the motor control and biomechanics literature, introducing the importance of describing motor behaviors not only for understanding mechanisms responsible for skillful motor actions in piano playing, but also for advancing diagnosis and rehabilitation of movement disorders caused by extensive piano practice.