Abstract
The principal goal of our study is to gain an insight into the coordinative structure of a complex body movement. As a first step, this paper describes the activity of multiple skeletal muscles associated with the drawing-like movements that resemble the Jeté, performed by skilled ballet dancers. The EMG activity of 18 muscles of the trunk, pelvis, and both legs was recorded when dancers standing on the left leg moved the toe of the right leg forward and backward along a straight line. A major finding is that the EMG activity of all right muscles, despite their functional and anatomical diversity, was minimised not only at the initial, vertical position but also in the reversal phase of movement when the moving leg was maximally deviated from the vertical position. In other words, the activity was minimal when torques of the weights of limb segments were minimal as well as when these torques were maximal. In contrast, in the static task when the maximally deviated leg position was maintained, there was substantial tonic activation of leg muscles, an activity that was necessary to balance these torques. The result is consistent with the hypothesis that movements of the body result from centrally induced changes in the muscle recruitment thresholds influencing the referent configuration of the body. The existence of minima in the overall EMG activity of skeletal muscles is not the only prediction of the referent configuration hypothesis. An immediate consequence of the hypothesis is that, in movements of the limb, the EMG patterns should be a direction-dependent phenomenon known as “directional tuning” of muscles. In combination with the principle of minimal interaction of neuromuscular system, the referent configuration hypothesis offers a dynamic approach to the problems of how control levels may guide multi-muscle and multi-joint systems without redundancy problems.
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Acknowledgements
On the basis of this scientific work on the complexity of muscle coordination, the authors would like to thank the Pedro Pauwels Dance Company (Paris) whose members participated as subjects for this study and with which we have created a choreography using the EMG signals on line as an acoustic support that is used to bring another sensory perspective to dance. This work in progress, “Mélodie musculaire du corps dansant”, is a way of saying that Dissecting the movement reveals the details so that the invisible becomes visible Agnès Noltenius (2003, Détail. Arte Edition-editions Complexe.
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Lepelley, MC., Thullier, F., Koral, J. et al. Muscle coordination in complex movements during Jeté in skilled ballet dancers. Exp Brain Res 175, 321–331 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-006-0552-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-006-0552-1