IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0161324.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Kinematic Origins of Motor Inconsistency in Expert Pianists

Author

Listed:
  • Kenta Tominaga
  • André Lee
  • Eckart Altenmüller
  • Fumio Miyazaki
  • Shinichi Furuya

Abstract

For top performers, including athletes and musicians, even subtle inconsistencies in rhythm and force during movement production decrease the quality of performance. However, extensive training over many years beginning in childhood is unable to perfect dexterous motor performance so that it is without any error. To gain insight into the biological mechanisms underlying the subtle defects of motor actions, the present study sought to identify the kinematic origins of inconsistency of dexterous finger movements in musical performance. Seven highly-skilled pianists who have won prizes at international piano competitions played a short sequence of tones with the right hand at a predetermined tempo. Time-varying joint angles of the fingers were recorded using a custom-made data glove, and the timing and velocity of the individual keystrokes were recorded from a digital piano. Both ridge and stepwise multiple regression analyses demonstrated an association of the inter-trial variability of the inter-keystroke interval (i.e., rhythmic inconsistency) with both the rotational velocity of joints of the finger used for a keystroke (i.e., striking finger) and the movement independence between the striking and non-striking fingers. This indicates a relationship between rhythmic inconsistency in musical performance and the dynamic features of movements in not only the striking finger but also the non-striking fingers. In contrast, the inter-trial variability of the key-descending velocity (i.e., loudness inconsistency) was associated mostly with the kinematic features of the striking finger at the moment of the keystroke. Furthermore, there was no correlation between the rhythmic and loudness inconsistencies. The results suggest distinct kinematic origins of inconsistencies in rhythm and loudness in expert musical performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Kenta Tominaga & André Lee & Eckart Altenmüller & Fumio Miyazaki & Shinichi Furuya, 2016. "Kinematic Origins of Motor Inconsistency in Expert Pianists," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-15, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0161324
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161324
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161324
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161324&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0161324?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leslie C. Osborne & Stephen G. Lisberger & William Bialek, 2005. "A sensory source for motor variation," Nature, Nature, vol. 437(7057), pages 412-416, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Caroline Haimerl & Douglas A. Ruff & Marlene R. Cohen & Cristina Savin & Eero P. Simoncelli, 2023. "Targeted V1 comodulation supports task-adaptive sensory decisions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Seth W. Egger & Stephen G. Lisberger, 2022. "Neural structure of a sensory decoder for motor control," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Nidhi Seethapathi & Barrett C. Clark & Manoj Srinivasan, 2024. "Exploration-based learning of a stabilizing controller predicts locomotor adaptation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-23, December.
    4. Biyu J He & John M Zempel, 2013. "Average Is Optimal: An Inverted-U Relationship between Trial-to-Trial Brain Activity and Behavioral Performance," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-14, November.
    5. Paolo Tommasino & Antonella Maselli & Domenico Campolo & Francesco Lacquaniti & Andrea d’Avella, 2021. "A Hessian-based decomposition characterizes how performance in complex motor skills depends on individual strategy and variability," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-32, June.
    6. Joby John & Jonathan B Dingwell & Joseph P Cusumano, 2016. "Error Correction and the Structure of Inter-Trial Fluctuations in a Redundant Movement Task," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(9), pages 1-30, September.
    7. Jonathan B Dingwell & Joby John & Joseph P Cusumano, 2010. "Do Humans Optimally Exploit Redundancy to Control Step Variability in Walking?," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(7), pages 1-15, July.
    8. Alexander Maye & Chih-hao Hsieh & George Sugihara & Björn Brembs, 2007. "Order in Spontaneous Behavior," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(5), pages 1-14, May.
    9. Greg J Stephens & Bethany Johnson-Kerner & William Bialek & William S Ryu, 2008. "Dimensionality and Dynamics in the Behavior of C. elegans," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(4), pages 1-10, April.
    10. John Porrill & Paul Dean, 2008. "Silent Synapses, LTP, and the Indirect Parallel-Fibre Pathway: Computational Consequences of Optimal Cerebellar Noise-Processing," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(5), pages 1-9, May.
    11. Dagmar Sternad & Masaki O Abe & Xiaogang Hu & Hermann Müller, 2011. "Neuromotor Noise, Error Tolerance and Velocity-Dependent Costs in Skilled Performance," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-15, September.
    12. Joseph A Lombardo & Matthew V Macellaio & Bing Liu & Stephanie E Palmer & Leslie C Osborne, 2018. "State dependence of stimulus-induced variability tuning in macaque MT," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-28, October.
    13. Kang He & You Liang & Farnaz Abdollahi & Moria Fisher Bittmann & Konrad Kording & Kunlin Wei, 2016. "The Statistical Determinants of the Speed of Motor Learning," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(9), pages 1-20, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0161324. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.