RESUMEN
Playing a musical instrument requires complex sensorimotor programming of hand and finger movements. During musical training motor programs are optimized to achieve highest accuracy with a minimum of effort. In the lack of handy measurement tools these rational assumptions of piano theorists did not undergo an experimental evaluation up to now. In the present pilot study we used a dynamic pressure measurement system with the pianoforte. Three finger exercises with increasing degrees of difficulty had to be performed by a group of musical amateurs and a group of expert players. From the dynamic force measurements we calculated (a) the mean pulse per touch and (b) the mean touch-duration for each exercise and each subject. To achieve the same tempo and the same loudness, amateurs applied significantly more and longer force to the keys, leading to higher mean pulses per touch. Pulse and duration values increased with higher demands on finger coordination in both, expert pianists and amateurs. The results show that dynamic force measurement systems can support music learners and teachers in training a relaxed piano technique and preventing musicians from overuse injuries.
Asunto(s)
Dedos/fisiología , Música , Adolescente , Adulto , Fenómenos Biomecánicos , Trastornos de Traumas Acumulados/prevención & control , Interpretación Estadística de Datos , Femenino , Fuerza de la Mano , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Proyectos Piloto , Presión , Transductores de PresiónRESUMEN
Subjects were asked to foveate luminance defined, texture (orientation) defined, or motion defined targets while the reaction times of their saccadic eye movements were measured. With luminance defined targets, latencies followed the known bimodal distribution of fast ("express") and normal saccades, but in five highly trained subjects neither orientation nor motion defined targets evoked express saccades. Interestingly, even luminance targets no longer generated express saccades when the contrast was adjusted so as to match the salience of orientation or motion defined targets. This suggests that the neuronal mechanism underlying the generation of express saccades is driven by localized, high-contrast stimuli at an early processing stage of the visual system. Together with the neurophysiological findings in the monkey that both orientation and motion contrast produce increased activity at early cortical levels, the negative finding of this study indicates only little, if any, direct contribution of V1 activity to the generation of express saccades.