title: Relationship between muscle cocontraction and proficiency in whole-body sensorimotor synchronization: a comparison study of street dancers and nondancers.
abstract: In this study, we investigated muscle cocontraction during a street dance movement task to provide evidence that the level of muscle cocontraction is associated with degree of proficiency in whole-body sensorimotor synchronization movement. Skilled street dancers and nondancers were required to synchronize a knee-bending movement in a standing position to a metronome beat. The dancer group showed significantly smaller variability of temporal deviation (defined as the peak knee-flexion time minus beat onset time), and lower level of muscle cocontraction analyzed by electromyographic data of the agonist and antagonist muscles of the upper and lower leg than did the nondancer group. In addition, multiple regression analyses revealed that the group effect significantly predicted the level of muscle cocontraction. These results show that the level of muscle cocontraction in the lower limbs during whole-body sensorimotor synchronization movement is associated with the degree of proficiency of the movement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Akito
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miura
authors.forename: Kazutoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kudo
authors.forename: Tatsuyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohtsuki
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kanehisa
authors.forename: Kimitaka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakazawa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003615:Dancing / Q000502:physiology*; D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D007717:Knee / Q000502:physiology; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*