Abstract
Expertise in music has been investigated for decades and the results have been applied not only in composition, performance and music education, but also in understanding brain plasticity in a larger context. Several studies have revealed a strong connection between auditory and motor processes and listening to and performing music, and music imagination. Recently, as a logical next step in music and movement, the cognitive and affective neurosciences have been directed towards expertise in dance. To understand the versatile and overlapping processes during artistic stimuli, such as music and dance, it is necessary to study them with continuous naturalistic stimuli. Thus, we used long excerpts from the contemporary dance piece Carmen presented with and without music to professional dancers, musicians, and laymen in an EEG laboratory. We were interested in the cortical phase synchrony within each participant group over several frequency bands during uni- and multimodal processing. Dancers had strengthened theta and gamma synchrony during music relative to silence and silent dance, whereas the presence of music decreased systematically the alpha and beta synchrony in musicians. Laymen were the only group of participants with significant results related to dance. Future studies are required to understand whether these results are related to some other factor (such as familiarity to the stimuli), or if our results reveal a new point of view to dance observation and expertise.
Highlights
Neuroscientists have learned a great deal about brain plasticity by studying the brain functions of musical expertise, during listening to and performing music and during unrelated tasks and at rest [1]
The collaborative aspect in music making has become a focus of neuroscience to elucidate the elements of social interaction [5,6]
In our two previous studies, we showed that dancers and musicians process fast changes in continuous music differently [14] and that the synchrony of activation is stronger in dancers than in musicians and laymen when watching an audiovisual dance piece [15]
Summary
Neuroscientists have learned a great deal about brain plasticity by studying the brain functions of musical expertise, during listening to and performing music and during unrelated tasks and at rest [1]. Dedication for years to master an instrument has been shown to shape brain structure and sensory, motor, cognitive and affective processes in the brain [2,3,4]. The collaborative aspect in music making has become a focus of neuroscience to elucidate the elements of social interaction [5,6]. Auditory-motor interaction has received attention in neurosciences of music [7]. In dance, both collaboration and rhythmic auditory-motor interaction are crucial, which may explain the emerging interest of neuroscientists towards dance.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
