This is your brain on tango music

http://syncproject.co/blog/2015/8/17/brain-on-tango

This is Your Brain on Tango Music


Marko Ahtisaari Research


Some scientists have compared studying the brain non-invasively to having the world’s most exquisite computer and trying to figure out how it works by knocking on its cover. fMRI is an important and admittedly exciting tool for just this reason - we can take a look inside...
What happens in the brain when we listen to music? What happens in the brain when we play an instrument? These have been a couple of the fundamental questions in the neuroscience of music. By making use of a method called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists have been able to take a peek into the brain and examine the activation patterns related to music listening and more recently, also playing.

fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging, is a method frequently used in neuroscientific investigations. It detects changes in cerebral blood flow while subjects are performing tasks within the scanner. The measurement will reveal which parts of the brain are important for the task at hand, since active areas in the brain require more fuel, and oxygen-rich blood will flow to these areas. The method is exciting, because it lets researchers “look” at the brain without the need to open the skull. Plus, the results can be shown in the form of beautiful colorful pictures.

Investigations of music listening have revealed that activation in the brain is very broad - there is no single area responsible for music processing. For example, take a look at a video created by Professor Petri Toiviainen on what listening to tango looks like in your brain.

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...[fMRI] reveals which parts of the brain are important for the task at hand, since active areas in the brain require more fuel, and oxygen-rich blood will flow to these areas...
Recently, there has been critique over use of the popular method, since it seems that even trained scientists can mistake an article including colorful fMRI images to contain better scientific reasoning than one without the images, but exactly the same data. Also, there are inherent caveats that need to be taken into consideration in using the method, such as the risk for false positives, such as in the case of imaging brain activity in this one, dead salmon.

That said, fMRI continues to be one of the most important methods for investigating brain processes. With carefully designed experiments, it continues to broaden understanding of brain processes and provides an unparalleled method for investigation. Recently, in addition to music listening, imaging what happens in the brain while the subject is playing a musical instrument has become possible. The restrictions related to movement are a concern, but another relates to the technique of the fMRI: it generates a very powerful magnetic field.

Therefore, any instrument used in the scanner must not contain any metal and must be something that can be used while lying in the confines of the MRI tube. This has required that neuroscientists and engineers get creative and build completely new, MRI-compatible instruments. Take a look at what an MRI-compatible cello looks like, and how it can be played during measurement. In the video, Neurologist Robert Zatorre and his PhD student (and cellist) Melanie Segado, and Prof. Marcelo Wanderley,and his student Avrum Hollinger present the fMRI-cello and discuss its use in research.


The brain is a tricky thing to investigate. It resides within living organisms and without invasive methods, our possibilities for looking at what happens during different activities are very limited. Some scientists have compared studying the brain non-invasively to having the world’s most exquisite computer and trying to figure out how it works by knocking on its cover. fMRI is an important and admittedly exciting tool for just this reason - we can take a look inside this exquisite organ. In the realm of the neuroscience of music, the fMRI as a method of investigation is vital for understanding the mechanisms that underlie music perception and production. With the help of creative thinking and engineering, the possibilities for exploring mechanisms related to more real life like music-making are expanding.

BY MARKO AHTISAARI AND KETKI KARANAM


REFERENCES:
McCabe, D. P., & Castel, A. D. (2008). Seeing is believing: The effect of brain images on judgments of scientific reasoning. Cognition, 107(1), 343–352. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.07.017

Dancing on the Brain

Keep dancing… it turns out it is good for the brain

Picking up choreography can seem like a brain teaser. Interpreting which arm, which leg, which direction even, can lead to legs and arms everywhere except for the very position they should be in. This can be frustrating, but keep dancing, as research suggests that learning new steps could prevent dementia.

By Alanna Orpen 4 Apr 2016
Dancing is good for the brain
In the studio by Alanna Orpen

I am frequently in a dance studio, where routines and exercises are thrown at me (and my fellow dancers). You’re expected to pick up the steps in a matter of minutes, are set improvisation challenges, and the choreography changes from week to week.

It is as much a mental workout as it is physical, digesting the constant new material, but this turns out to be a good thing. At the start of a contemporary class, the teacher announced, “Good news for us dancers, I read today that dancing can prevent dementia.” So I thought I’d investigate.

Dementia risk
Dementia describes a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language, that are caused when the brain is damaged by diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.

According to the World Health Organization, the number of people who will be affected by neurological disorders is expected to increase in the upcoming decades. There are issues with current surgical and pharmacological treatments, as well as conventional rehabilitative therapies, so new therapies are needed.

dancing can reduce the onset of dementia

Dance is seen as viable therapy because it simultaneously combines physical and cognitive stimulation, which could maximize its impact on neuroplasticity and cognition. So far, studies have examined the effects of dance in elderly individuals with dementia, including subjects with Alzheimer’s disease and those with confusion, disorientation, and memory loss.

Dance to prevent onset of dementia
Dance is mentally stimulating
Dancing is mainly associated with physical health benefits, but scientists have recently discovered its neurological benefits. The complex mental coordination that dance requires activates several brain regions: the cerebellum, the somatosensory cortex and the basal ganglia, triggering kinaesthetic, rational, musical, and emotional responses. This strengthens neural connections and can improve our memory.

Benefits of dance movement therapy in dementia treatment
In 2003, research published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that dancing can reduce the onset of dementia. The 21-year study of senior citizens, aged 75 and older, was led by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, funded by the National Institute on Aging. They measured each participant’s mental alertness as a means of monitoring the rates of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers studied a range of cognitive and physical activities, such as reading; writing; doing crossword puzzles; playing cards; playing musical instruments; dancing; walking; tennis; swimming and golf. Surprisingly, dance was the one activity that was good for the mind, significantly reducing dementia risk. Regular dancing reduced the risk of dementia by 76%, twice as much as reading. Doing crossword puzzles at least four days a week reduced the risk by 47%, while cycling and swimming offered no benefit at all.

dance may still be seen as recreational while its clinical value is overlooked

But, not all forms of dancing offer the same cognitive benefits. Working on memorized sequences, might improve your performance, however it doesn’t create new neural pathways. The theory goes that the more pathways your brain has the easier it can access stored information and the better your memory.

Neurologist Dr. Robert Katzman said, “Freestyle social dancing, such as foxtrot, waltz and swing, requires constant split-second, rapid-fire decision making, which is the key to maintaining intelligence because it forces your brain to regularly rewire its neural pathways, giving you greater cognitive reserve and increased complexity of neuronal synapses.”

Building your brain’s neural complex works in much the same way as exercise, to get fitter you have to train regularly. So, the more dancing you do, the greater your cognitive reserve. And don’t worry about having to attend dance classes. It’s said that you’ll benefit from just going out dancing. Your improvisational skills on the dance floor should fire up the rapid decision-making that’s needed to forge new neural pathways.

Another study in 2012 showed that a 10 week dance intervention helped dementia patients over 70. It was a small pilot study of 18 subjects, where ten of the dance participants showed an improvement in cognitive function and mood compared to the eight who did not dance.

neurological benefits of dancing
Argentine tango, Parkinson’s Disease and future trials
Dance has also been found to alleviate symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Similarly to dementia, it is another disease where individuals can suffer impaired mental function due to damaged neurons in the brain. A review, published in BMC Neurology, discusses how the Argentine Tango can improve an individual’s spatial awareness and memory because of the postures and simple paths learnt during the dance classes. These are then stored, remembered and used again, but it is also important for individuals to improvise and respond spontaneously to the music.

The field of dance research in the elderly is relatively young and continues to evolve. A study published in BMC Geriatrics, found that a dance video game, which combined physical and cognitive training, was more beneficial in improving walking accuracy and pace in older adults than muscle strengthening exercises alone.

Research hoping to bolster the use of dance therapy include a trial in BMC Geriatrics. The authors will examine whether two hours of moderate dance sessions a week will be sufficient to increase brain growth factors supporting brain plasticity and slow down dementia progression.

Dance and ageing research has shown its positive impact on the neurology in healthy and dementia groups. Dance therapy could be prescribed by physicians to improve visual perception and spatial memory, an area commonly affected by dementia. Even so, would traditionalists be willing to accept dance as something more than just a hobby and trust in its clinical value? At least there’s little worry about negative side effects.

If dancing can keep my mind healthy, as well as my body, then bring on the fast intricate footwork along with a port de bras (carriage of the arms) to match. I’ll see you in the studio.

This Is Your Brain On Tango - Study from 2005

Doing the tango keeps the brain in step, too

By Kathleen Fackelmann, USA TODAY



WASHINGTON — The hot moves of the Argentine Tango not only keep the aging body in shape, they also may help sharpen the aging brain, according to a study out Tuesday.

That study, presented here at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, adds to a growing body of evidence indicating that such challenging leisure activities as dancing, chess or even gardening may offer a boost in brainpower that could offset the declines that can come with old age.

Previous studies in animals and in humans had suggested that a sweat-breaking workout may help keep brain cells in top form. But Patricia McKinley of McGill University in Montreal also knew that the activity had to be something that seniors would enjoy.

McKinley picked the tango, a dance that's both fun to do and involves a series of complex moves that can improve balance. Her team recruited 30 seniors ages 68 to 91. Half the group got tango lessons, and the other half were assigned to a walking group.

The dancers got a boost in self-esteem almost right away.

"They would come in with sweatpants and sneakers, but after the third or fourth class, they had on makeup and jewelry," McKinley says. The class was mostly older women, but older men came, too.

After 10 weeks, the team looked for improvements in brainpower. Both walkers and tango dancers had better scores on memory tests, but only the tango dancers improved on a multitasking test. Such a boost may translate to better abilities off the dance floor, such as the ability to talk on the phone while responding to an e-mail.

Tango dancers also gained improvements in balance and motor coordination. That finding suggests they'd be at less risk of falling, a significant gain for older, frail people who can break a hip and never fully recover, McKinley says.

Tango dancing isn't the only way to power up the brain.

A second study, also presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting, suggests that a specialized computer game might do the same.

Michael Merzenich at the University of California-San Francisco and his colleagues designed a gamelike computer program that might improve the ability to retain information.

The game also trains older people to listen carefully to words, strings of words or sentences and then answer questions about what they've learned. Older people often have trouble with their hearing, and that can slow down or impair their ability to learn a new task, Merzenich says.

The group trained 42 seniors to use the computer program. They found the seniors did better on standard tests of memory and attention compared with 33 control-group seniors, some of whom used a computer during the eight weeks but not the specialized game.

Both studies underscore the importance of a good mental workout. "The brain is like a muscle," says Paul Coleman at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Seniors should pick an activity they enjoy, such as tennis or bridge, and then "just do it," Coleman says.




Press Release

STUDIES WITH DANCING, COMPUTER TRAINING, SHOW WAYS TO MAINTAIN A HEALTHY BRAIN IN OLD AGE

For immediate release.

NR-11-05 (11/15/05). For more information, please contact Sara Harris at (202) 462-6688 or sharris@sfn.org.

STUDIES WITH DANCING, COMPUTER TRAINING, SHOW WAYS TO MAINTAIN A HEALTHY BRAIN IN OLD AGE

WASHINGTON, DC, November 15, 2005 — Scientists are unraveling the mysteries of how the brain ages—and none too soon. The number of people living past age 65 has increased dramatically during the last century, from slightly over 4 percent in 1900 to 13 percent in 2000. It’s estimated that by 2050, when the baby boomer generation is fully ensconced in its elderly years, 20 percent of Americans will be 65 or older. Indeed, the fastest-growing segment is people over age 85.

As the population ages, the incidence of neurodegenerative disorders associated with old age, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other forms of dementia, will rise significantly, placing an emotional and economic burden on an increasing number of individuals and families as well as on the public health system. Fortunately, most people do not develop such diseases as they age, but they do experience age-related memory and other cognitive declines. By better understanding how and why those declines occur, scientists hope to find preventive and therapeutic treatments that will help the growing population of the elderly retain active, productive lives throughout their lives.

According to new research, two effective treatments for maintaining a healthy brain include tango dancing and a specialized computer training program.

“Just as the aging of a bottle of wine is a function of the grape and vineyard that the wine came from and how it’s treated during its life, so is the aging of the human body and brain,” says Paul Coleman, PhD, professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “So people need to treat the brain properly and take care of it and do things to it that will increase its longevity.”

There’s plenty of good news about the aging brain. Recent neurobiological studies have found that healthy individuals lose far fewer nerve cells (neurons) in the brain as they age than previously thought, says Marilyn Albert, PhD, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University.

And there’s more: Scientists have also found that not everybody experiences age-related changes in cognition. “Some older adults perform much more poorly on tests of mental ability than younger individuals, which tends to make the average for the group decline,” notes Albert. “But other older individuals perform in the same range as people many decades younger than themselves. This variability suggests that there must be factors that influence brain aging, even among healthy individuals.”

Genetics certainly plays a role, but so does, according to growing evidence, environmental and lifestyle factors. Epidemiological studies conducted in many countries and across many cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds have found that three important factors help predict how well healthy adults maintain cognitive function as they age: mental activity, physical activity, and social engagement.

“Much work remains to be done to understand the mechanisms by which lifestyle factors affect brain aging and thereby permit specific recommendations for individuals,” says Albert. “The findings to date, however, suggest that as the 21st century unfolds, we will learn much more about ways in which we can maintain brain function at an optimal level into old age.”

Some scientists are examining the nature of age-related changes in the brain. Using a new statistical technique to analyze the results of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain, researchers at Columbia University were recently able to identify, for the first time, brain “patterns” or “networks” implicated in the normal aging process and to assess the impact of these interrelated patterns on changes in cognition. Previous MRI studies of the aging brain tended to use analytic techniques that considered each region of the brain independently.

For the study, researchers recruited 113 subjects who tested negative for medical, neurological, psychiatric or cognitive impairment. The subjects were divided into a younger group (average age =24) and an older group (average age = 73). The brains of all the subjects were scanned with high-resolution MRI and evaluated with a brief series of neuropsychological tests. The MR images were segmented so that grey and white matter of the brain could be examined separately. A multivariate technique based on a subprofile scaling model was then used to identify age-associated patterns of grey and white matter. The degree to which individuals expressed this pattern was compared to their performance on the neuropsychological tests.

“Our results suggest that there are identifiable networks of grey and white matter regions that systematically decline with age,” says Adam M. Brickman, PhD. Many areas of the brain appear to be involved in these networks. For grey matter, the network includes areas along the surface of the brain (cortical) and deep within the brain (subcortical). For white matter, the network includes deep frontal regions, areas surrounding the ventricles (cavities within the brain that that contain cerebrospinal fluid), and the large fiber tracts that connect the various parts of the brain.

“We also found that the expression of both grey and white patterns is associated with performance on cognitive tests, particularly tests that measure memory, attention, and executive function,” adds Brickman. “That is, the more each individual’s images resembled older brains, the poorer the performance on the tests of cognition.”

Brickman and his colleagues will next attempt to determine what factors might mediate the relationship between age and these structural and functional changes in the brain—studies that may help scientists develop treatments to halt or perhaps even reverse the effects of age on the brain.

Most research into the aging brain has focused on gray matter, the darker-colored tissue of the brain composed mainly of the bodies of nerve cells (neurons). Gray matter includes such structures as the cerebral cortex, the thalamus, and the basal ganglia, and is believed to be the “thinking” center of the brain where memory, among other cognitive functions, is processed. As we age, some neurons shrink and others die, resulting in a loss of gray matter.

Although less studied, white matter—the fibers (axons) that connect neurons within and between brain regions—also shrinks with age. Axons transmit messages among neurons, and are encased in a sheath of fat called myelin. With aging, the thickness of the myelin decreases, resulting in reduced white matter density—a change that can be seen under a microscope, particularly around the brain’s ventricles (cavities containing cerebrospinal fluid) and in deep white matter. If this shrinkage or deterioration in the brain’s “telephone wires” is significant, it may cause interference in communication between areas of gray matter. In turn, this disrupted communication could impact a person’s ability to perform complex, coordinated daily tasks, such as remembering to pay the bills on time or doing complicated mathematical calculations in one’s head.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David A. Ziegler and his colleagues used a fairly new MRI-based brain imaging technique, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), to study white matter changes in healthy aging brains and how these changes are linked to cognitive performance. DTI measures the ease with which water molecules move in a particular direction through different types of tissue. Because bundles of myelinated axons create barriers that restrict the movement of water non-randomly, DTI can be used as an indirect measure of the integrity of white matter—and, thus, of whether regions of white matter are particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of aging.

The cognitive tasks chosen for the study were designed to assess episodic memory (the ability to remember specific events and their contexts), semantic memory (the ability to remember facts), and frontal lobe cognitive control processes (the ability to coordinate one’s thoughts and actions). “We found that white matter integrity was particularly reduced in the frontal-most parts of the brain—areas such as the prefrontal cortex and the anterior portion of the corpus callosum,” says Ziegler. “We were also able to demonstrate that this decline in integrity is associated with a decreased ability to perform tasks that require cognitive control—precisely those functions traditionally assigned to the frontal lobes.” In contrast, performance on semantic and episodic memory tasks appears to relate more to integrity of white matter in other parts of the brain, such as regions underlying the parietal and temporal lobes.

Next, Ziegler and his colleagues intend to determine the extent to which age-related functional declines are dependent upon white matter versus gray matter and when in the course of aging these patterns first emerge. In other words, is it the neurons themselves or the connections between them that are the critical factor in age-related function decline? Or do gray matter and white matter each play a distinct role? One way to address this issue would be to see whether increasing white matter integrity would improve cognition and in what way. Until now, therapeutic attempts have focused largely on specific neurotransmitter systems (such as the cholinergic system) or on pathological entities in the brain (such as neuritic plaques).

“An unexplored target for drug development is the brain’s white matter,” says Ziegler. “Because the cellular components of white matter show a remarkable capacity for plasticity through the lifespan, it may be possible to enhance white matter integrity in older individuals pharmacologically or even through changes in diet or cardiovascular fitness. If it is possible to harness white matter plasticity, this approach might prove a very effective means of countering some of the cognitive declines that are typical of advanced age.”

While some scientists examine how the brain ages, others are exploring what can be done to prevent or possibly even reverse age-related cognitive decline. At McGill University in Montreal, Canada, researchers have found that the sultry moves of Argentine tango dancing can help the aging brain. “Our findings suggest that tango may be better than walking for improving the execution of complex tasks and the ability to move within a restricted area without losing one’s footing,” says Patricia McKinley, PhD.

More than one-third of the elderly population in the United States experiences a fall each year, and, for older adults, falls are a leading cause of death. In addition, 71 percent of seniors over the age of 65 live alone, and many spend more than seven hours a day without any social contact. This isolation, coupled with the normal aging process, can lead to cognitive decline.

Tango dancing is beneficial to the elderly, says McKinley, because it incorporates elements found in standard neurological rehabilitation programs: forward, backward and side-to-side weight shift; one-legged stance; walking on a straight line both backwards and forwards; increasing step length in all directions; and turning within a narrow space.

“An added benefit of tango is that its movements are performed to music, which is known to facilitate performance of ambulatory activities,” says McKinley.

For the study, which was funded by the Drummond Foundation, the researchers recruited 30 seniors, aged 62 to 90. All were healthy individuals who had experienced a fall within the last year and had developed a fear of falling. They were randomly assigned to either a walking group or a tango dancing group. Both groups met for two hours twice a week for ten weeks.

Both the dancers and the walkers had their motor and cognitive skills evaluated before and after the program. The evaluations included spatial and numerical memory tests, complex and simple walking tasks, clinical measurements of balance, and self-efficacy for balance.

The tango group showed improvement in balance, posture and motor coordination, as well as cognitive gains. Specifically, the tango group performed significantly better than the walking group at performing a complex cognitive task while walking, at standing on one foot, and at turning in confined spaces. Memory testing, however, was inconclusive, perhaps because the sample size was not large enough, says McKinley.

The drop-out rate for the tango group was smaller than that for the walking group (one versus four), and 66 percent of the tango group continued to participate in the activity a year later.

“Tango dancing is an ideal leisure activity for this population,” says McKinley, “because it satisfies three basic requirements for exercise adherence: it’s fun, it’s a group activity, and it has a tangible goal that can be perceived not only by the dancer, but by his or her family and friends.”

Another new study has demonstrated that an eight-week computer-based training program that exercises the brain’s auditory and language systems can significantly improve neuropsychological measures of memory in older adults. These findings open up new therapeutic possibilities for enhancing memory and reversing the cognitive function decline associated with the aging brain. Perhaps more importantly, they underscore the premise that the brain is capable of adapting and improving at any age. While the “use it or lose it” slogan has recently become closely associated with mental fitness, this study is one of the first to demonstrate how to “use it” to achieve measurable results.

The training program used in the study was designed based on extensive research into the brain’s inherent plasticity, or ability to adapt at any age, and represents a departure from conventional approaches by treating underlying causes of cognitive decline rather than just the symptoms.

The study involved 95 participants (ages 63 to 94) who were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a brain plasticity-based training program group, a control group using a computer, and a no-contact control group. The training group completed an hour of computer exercises daily. The program included six exercises that rotated on a daily basis with each participant performing four of the six exercises on a given day. A trainer was present if any participants had difficulty with the program. Using a computer-based program permitted the researchers to deliver stimuli accurately and consistently, to change the difficulty of the tasks as people improved, and to track performance gains.

Before and after the training period, all participants were administered standardized assessments of memory and cognition, including the Repeatable Battery for Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), which evaluates five cognitive areas: immediate memory, delayed memory, attention, spoken language, and visuospatial perception. In addition, participants received a standardized assessment of working memory. Those participants who completed more difficult levels of exercises showed the greatest improvements.

“We found that the group who completed the training program experienced significant improvement in measurable memory scores,” says Michael Merzenich, PhD, chief scientific officer at Posit Science and the Francis A. Sooy Professor at the Keck Center for Integrative Neurosciences at the University of California-San Francisco. “In fact, by using RBANS age norming data, we concluded that the majority of the participants in the training program group improved 10 or more years in neurocognitive status. Beyond measurable results, participants in the study reported a range of benefits from feeling more engaged in conversation to having more control over their lives.”

The next step in this research, Merzenich says, is to evaluate the effects of computer training on people’s ability to process and understand speech. The researchers also intend to use brain imaging techniques to map how the training program changes brain function.

“While it seems each year brings new scientific advances that increase the physical lifespan in humans, our program shows that brain plasticity-based applications can positively affect cognitive performance,” says Merzenich. “In doing so, we hope to improve overall quality of life as we age, helping our ‘brainspan’ match our ever-growing lifespan.”

The authors of this study are employed by Posit Science Corporation, which is developing brain plasticity-based training programs for commercial release.

A dancer’s brain develops in a unique way :: By Hanna Poikonen :: University of Helsinki

Callie Fink, Artist

Music activates our deeper brain areas, but what happens in a dancer's brain? Movement can trigger a flow state which makes way for an intuitive neural network.

https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/health/a-dancers-brain-develops-in-a-unique-way#


By Hanna Poikonen, Doctoral Candidate, University of Helsinki/Cognitive Brain Research Unit

As technology takes over more areas of our lives, interest in more natural ways of life has also increased massively. One example of this desire to reconnect with nature is the upsurge of yoga and meditation retreats.

Music and dance have been fundamental parts of the human experience for millennia. They have enabled interaction which has given rise to close communities and rich cultures.

Neuroscience has studied music for decades. It has been found to activate the deeper brain areas in a unique way. Deep brain areas are primarily responsible for emotions, memory and social interaction. They evolved in the human brain much earlier than the cognitive functions in the cortex.

Deep brain areas are primarily responsible for emotions, memory and social interaction.

My doctoral dissertation developed methods for understanding the processes that dance generates in the cortex.

I compared the brain functions of professional dancers and musicians to people with no experience of dance or music as they watched recordings of a dance piece. The brain activity of the dancers was different from that of musicians and the control group during sudden changes in the music, long-term listening of music and the audio-visual dance performance.

These results support the earlier findings indicating that the auditory and motor cortex of dancers develops in a unique way. In my study, the dancers’ brains reacted more quickly to changes in the music than those of musicians or members of the control group. The change is apparent in the brain as a reflex, before the dancer is even aware of it at a conscious level.

I also found that dancers displayed stronger synchronisation at the low theta frequency. Theta synchronisation is linked to emotion and memory processes which are central to all interpersonal interaction and self-understanding.

In dance, the basic elements of humanity combine in a natural way.

Touch and cooperation are integral elements of dance – without them, there can be no dance. They are as important to dance as movement and music.

However, the neuroscience of dance is still a young field. Consequently, the brain processes of touch and cooperation have not yet been studied through dance specifically.

We do know that in dance, the basic elements of humanity combine in a natural way. It combines creative act, fine-tuned movement and collaboration, much like playing music. The movement involves the whole body, like in sports. There is touch, like in gentle interaction.

Dancing is also associated with “flow”, a well-researched phenomenon in which the person becomes fully immersed in an activity. Flow experiences have been found to increase the general contentment and productivity of the person as well as the quality of the activity. It reduces the activation of the neural network which is responsible for logical deduction and detailed observation.

This makes room for the creative neural network which also has an important role in generating a relaxed state of mind.

Practicing an instrument requires extreme precision. It has been found to shape motor processes in the brain in many ways. Meanwhile, studies conducted on dancers reveal how their brains have specialised to process dance motion.

Certain areas of dancers’ brains have specialised precisely to observe dance movements. The brain structures of musicians and dancers have also been found to differ from the general population in the areas responsible for processing movement and sound.

Brain synchronisation enables seamless cooperation.

Studies on producing music and movement show how during cooperation, the brains of two people become attuned to the same frequency. This is apparent in how the low-frequency brain waves of the participants become synchronised.

Brain synchronisation enables seamless cooperation, and is necessary for creating both harmonic music and movement. The ability to become attuned to another person’s brain frequency is essential for the function of any empathetic community.

Lately, researchers have gained fantastic results regarding the role of exercise as a mood enhancer. In addition to drug treatment and psychotherapy, exercise is currently even being recommended as a form of treatment for depression. Exercise releases hormones that create a sense of wellbeing, which in turn boosts positive emotional processes in the brain. It also lowers the activation of the amygdala, the brain’s fear and stress centre.

Finding the right dance style can make dancers euphoric, and make them forget the drudgery of official exercise recommendations and step counters.

Dancers who pursue graceful movement must practice being aware of their bodies and (being aware) of wordless communication. These skills are particularly important today, when we spend so much time sitting and in virtual realities. Our way of life has taken us further from our own physical experiences and the understanding of the wordless emotional messages of others.

For example, contact improvisation makes the dancers to listen attentively to the body of their partner. Touch is known to reduce pain, fear and anxiety.

Functional brain imaging has shown that these effects of touch are also apparent in the brain. In one study, a touch from a significant other reduced the intensity of the pain activation in the brain during an electric stimulus when compared with pain experienced alone.

Pain, stress and anxiety often go hand in hand with depression. Dance, music and related expressive forms of therapy could help lessen mental fluctuations even before the onset of full depression. Promising results have been gained from treating depression through music therapy.

Dance therapy can help with many disorders of the mind and body, from anxiety to dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

Dance is a highly subjective experience. However, neuroscience can help us understand how people can use dance to feel more connected to each other in our technology-filled world.


Hanna Poikonen
The author is a Master of Science (Technology) and a dancer, and is writing her doctoral dissertation at the University of Helsinki’s Cognitive Brain Research Unit.

From the Researcher’s Pen is a series of articles in which researchers describe their work. This article was produced by Uutistamo in cooperation with the University of Helsinki.

Sent from my iPad

Can Another Body Be Seen as an Extension of Your Own? Tango makes it into Scientific American

Scientific America/Mind

Can Another Body Be Seen as an Extension of Your Own?

Surprising results show the fluidity of the "body schema"

By Julie Sedivy on January 12, 2016

The relationship between a person’s notion of self-hood and the openness of their body schema to another human being hints that perhaps it’s no coincidence that tango, which takes entanglement to sublime heights, originated in a culture that orients toward interdependence.

They want $500 for me to post an excerpt for up to 12 months.

Fuck that noise.

Here is the link.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-another-body-be-seen-as-an-extension-of-your-own/

Ballroom Brainwaves | The Scientist | By Eli Chen

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39584/title/Ballroom-Brainwaves/

Thanks to Dawn for the find!

The Scientist »
News & Opinion »
Daily News

Ballroom Brainwaves

A neuroscientist studies the brains of tango dancers in an attempt to understand interpersonal connectedness.

By Eli Chen | March 28, 2014


The original article showed Eli's photo...this is one of mine cuz it's easier to post...


Dancing with someone for the first time involves a great deal of uncertainty. At first, new dance partners watch their feet nervously, unsure of where to step. But with time, rhythm and flow can develop between them. Eventually, it might seem as though they’ve known one another for years and can predict their partner’s moves.

It’s not fully known what makes two people click. But some researchers are working to understand how human brains can operate in sync. Suzanne Dikker, a cognitive neuroscientist at New York University, is one such researcher, and she’s using partner dance to unravel the complicated neuroscience behind such interpersonal “chemistry.”

“Humans are always trying to gauge compatibility and connectedness,” says Dikker, “so we know who we want to work with and who we don’t. Our survival is dependent on how we synchronize with each other.”

Dikker staged an event in Brooklyn, New York, this week (March 26) to demonstrate what brain synchrony might look like between dancers. With “NeuroTango,” which was hosted by the Greater New York City Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience as part of its Brain Awareness Week, Dikker hooked up two pairs of tango dancers with EEG headsets to measure each person’s brainwaves. She then performed three experiments.

First, the previously acquainted pairs danced to a song like they normally would. Then they switched partners to dance with someone they were less familiar with. After that, the dancers stood in place with their initial partners and imagined they were dancing. All the while, Dikker projected graphics and numerical scores onto the walls of the room, depicting when the dancers’ brains were in sync, and when they were less so.

Dikker is using tango to study brain synchrony for a couple of reasons. For one, she finds the interactions between two tango dancers fascinating because of the amount of coordination it takes to make complicated movements look natural and instinctive.

“Tango is interesting and complex to study because depending on whether you’re a leader or a follower, there are different brain states involved in anticipating what your partner will do,” says Lawrence Parsons, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Sheffield. Parsons conducted the first neuroimaging study on dancers, in 2008, to discover which parts of the brain were most active in dance.

Beyond exhibiting performance art, with “NeuroTango” Dikker sought to test whether EEG could be reliably used to study moving interactions in real time. She had previously worked on Marina Abramovic’s performance piece, “Measuring the Magic of Mutual Gaze,” which was featured at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow in 2011. As part of that installation, participants were asked to sit still and make eye contact with strangers for prolonged periods of time, as EEG headsets captured their brain activities. The brainwave data Dikker collected from Abramovic’s piece were what inspired her to devise NeuroTango—she wanted to compare the EEG’s reading on stationary versus mobile subjects.

However, brainwave data is best collected in the absence sound or movement, and it’s well known among neuroscientists that portable EEGs can be hypersensitive.

“I’m cautious because the subjects’ movements and the audience presence could create noise in the data,” says Lewis Hou, a research associate at the University of Edinburgh, who’s leading a project to discern what’s happening in the brains of Scottish folk dancers. From a science communication standpoint, however, “I think this is event is a fantastic way to engage the public in neuroscience,” he adds.

Dikker also hoped to explore how each dancer’s level of experience played into synchronization. One pair of dancers had known one another for 17 years, while the other had only been dance partners for six. Ivana Konvalinka, a cognitive neuroscientist at Technical University of Denmark, wondered what Dikker’s preliminary data might show about what happens in dancers’ brains while they’re imagining movement, and how that might relate to his or her level of expertise.

“Studies have shown that experienced dancers coordinate their movements very differently than those who aren’t,” says Konvalinka. “[The] premotor cortex, which is activated while dancing, is also highly activated even when they’re just rehearsing in their heads.”

While technological limitations make these questions a challenge to investigate, “NeuroTango” nonetheless provided a glimpse into a small but growing field in neuroscience that’s diving deep into the mysterious space between two people.

Corrections (March 28): This article has been updated to more accurately reflect Suzanne Dikker’s current affiliation, and to correct when and where Marina Abramovic’s “Measuring the Magic of Mutual Gaze” was featured. A previous version incorrectly stated Abramovic’s piece was featured in New York City last year. It was in fact featured in Moscow in 2011. The Scientist regrets the errors.

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neuroscience, neuroimaging, EEG, dance and culture Friday