title: Rise rate and timing variability of surface electromyographic activity during rhythmic drumming movements in the world's fastest drummer.
abstract: The winner of an international contest to find the world's fastest drummer (WFD) can perform repetitive wrist tapping movements with one hand using a handheld drumstick at 10Hz, much faster than the maximum tapping frequency of 5-7Hz in the general population. The muscle activity facilitating this improved performance, however, has only recently been explored. The present study investigated the rise rate and timing variability of surface electromyographic (EMG) activity of wrist flexor/extensor muscles in the WFD, and compared them with those in two control groups: non-drummers (NDs) and ordinary drummers (ODs). The WFD showed more rapid EMG amplitude rise, earlier decline of EMG activity, and more stable muscle activation time than the NDs and ODs. In addition, there was a significant correlation between the EMG rise rate and the duration of drum training in the group of drummers (i.e., ODs and WFD). These results indicate that the 10-Hz performance of the WFD was achieved by a 'sharper' and 'less noisy' burst pattern of wrist muscles, and that drum training would have the effect to increase the speed of development of muscle tension.
authors: Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors: Shinya
authors: S
authors: Fujii
authors: Toshio
authors: T
authors: Moritani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004576:Electromyography / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D009146:Music; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014955:Wrist Joint / Q000502:physiology*