title: Might as well jump: sound affects muscle activation in skateboarding.
abstract: The aim of the study is to reveal the role of sound in action anticipation and performance, and to test whether the level of precision in action planning and execution is related to the level of sensorimotor skills and experience that listeners possess about a specific action. Individuals ranging from 18 to 75 years of age--some of them without any skills in skateboarding and others experts in this sport--were compared in their ability to anticipate and simulate a skateboarding jump by listening to the sound it produces. Only skaters were able to modulate the forces underfoot and to apply muscle synergies that closely resembled the ones that a skater would use if actually jumping on a skateboard. More importantly we showed that only skaters were able to plan the action by activating anticipatory postural adjustments about 200 ms after the jump event. We conclude that expert patterns are guided by auditory events that trigger proper anticipations of the corresponding patterns of movements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cesari
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Camponogara
authors.affiliation: Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology, Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Papetti
authors.affiliation: Department of Architecture and Arts, Iuav University of Venice, Venice, Italy.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rocchesso
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematic and Computer Science, University of Udine, Udine, Italy.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fontana
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012861:Skating / Q000502:physiology*; D013016:Sound; D055815:Young Adult