Abstract
Dexterous object manipulation in skilful behaviours such as surgery, craft making, and musical performance involves fast, precise, and efficient control of force with the fingers. A challenge in playing musical instruments is the requirement of independent control of the magnitude and rate of force production, which typically vary in relation to loudness and tempo. However, it is unknown how expert musicians skilfully control finger force to elicit tones with a wide range of loudness and tempi. Here, we addressed this issue by comparing the variation of spatiotemporal characteristics of force during repetitive and simultaneous piano keystrokes in relation to the loudness and tempo between pianists and musically untrained individuals. While the peak key-descending velocity varied with loudness but not with tempo in both groups, the peak and impulse of the key-depressing force were smaller in pianists than in the non-musicians, specifically when eliciting loud tones, suggesting superior energetic efficiency in the trained individuals. The key-depressing force was more consistent across strikes in pianists than in the non-musicians at all loudness levels but only at slow tempi, confirming expertise-dependency of precise force control. A regression analysis demonstrated that individual differences in the keystroke rates when playing at the fastest tempo across the trained pianists were negatively associated with the force impulse during the key depression but not with the peak force only at the loudest tone. This suggests that rapid reductions of force following the key depression plays a role in considerably fast performance of repetitive piano keystrokes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altenmüller E (2003) Focal dystonia: advances in brain imaging and understanding of fine motor control in musicians. Hand Clin 19(523–538):xi
Altenmüller E, Baur V, Hofmann A, Lim VK, Jabusch HC (2012) Musician’s cramp as manifestation of maladaptive brain plasticity: arguments from instrumental differences. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1252:259–265. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2012.06456.x
Benjamini Y, Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discovery rate—a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. J R Stat Soc Series B Methodol 57:289–300
Dounskaia NV, Swinnen SP, Walter CB, Spaepen AJ, Verschueren SM (1998) Hierarchical control of different elbow-wrist coordination patterns. Exp Brain Res 121:239–254
Flanagan JR, Bowman MC, Johansson RS (2006) Control strategies in object manipulation tasks. Curr Opin Neurobiol 16:650–659. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2006.10.005
Fujii S, Oda S (2009) Effects of stick use on bimanual coordination performance during rapid alternate tapping in drummers. Motor Control 13:331–341
Furuya S, Altenmüller E (2015) Acquisition and reacquisition of motor coordination in musicians. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1337:118–124. doi:10.1111/nyas.12659
Furuya S, Kinoshita H (2007) Roles of proximal-to-distal sequential organization of the upper limb segments in striking the keys by expert pianists. Neurosci Lett 421:264–269. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2007.05.051
Furuya S, Kinoshita H (2008a) Expertise-dependent modulation of muscular and non-muscular torques in multi-joint arm movements during piano keystroke. Neuroscience 156:390–402. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2008.07.028
Furuya S, Kinoshita H (2008b) Organization of the upper limb movement for piano key-depression differs between expert pianists and novice players. Exp Brain Res 185:581–593. doi:10.1007/s00221-007-1184-9
Furuya S, Nakahara H, Aoki T, Kinoshita H (2006) Prevalence and causal factors of playing-related musculoskeletal disorders of the upper extremity and trunk among Japanese pianists and piano students. Med Probl Perform Art 21:112–117
Furuya S, Osu R, Kinoshita H (2009) Effective utilization of gravity during arm downswing in keystrokes by expert pianists. Neuroscience 164:822–831. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.08.024
Furuya S, Altenmuller E, Katayose H, Kinoshita H (2010) Control of multi-joint arm movements for the manipulation of touch in keystroke by expert pianists. BMC Neurosci 11:82. doi:10.1186/1471-2202-11-82
Furuya S, Goda T, Katayose H, Miwa H, Nagata N (2011) Distinct inter-joint coordination during fast alternate keystrokes in pianists with superior skill. Front Hum Neurosci 5:50 doi:10.3389/fnhum.2011.00050
Furuya S, Aoki T, Nakahara H, Kinoshita H (2012) Individual differences in the biomechanical effect of loudness and tempo on upper-limb movements during repetitive piano keystrokes. Hum Mov Sci 31:26–39. doi:10.1016/j.humov.2011.01.002
Furuya S, Oku T, Miyazaki F, Kinoshita H (2015) Secrets of virtuoso: neuromuscular attributes of motor virtuosity in expert musicians. Sci Rep 5:15750 doi:10.1038/srep15750
Harris CM, Wolpert DM (1998) Signal-dependent noise determines motor planning. Nature 394:780–784. doi:10.1038/29528
Hofmann A, Goebl W (2016) Finger forces in clarinet playing. Front Psychol 7:1140 doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01140
Hore J, Watts S, Tweed D (1999) Prediction and compensation by an internal model for back forces during finger opening in an overarm throw. J Neurophysiol 82:1187–1197
Jones KE, Hamilton AF, Wolpert DM (2002) Sources of signal-dependent noise during isometric force production. J Neurophysiol 88:1533–1544
Kinoshita H, Furuya S, Aoki T, Altenmuller E (2007) Loudness control in pianists as exemplified in keystroke force measurements on different touches. J Acoust Soc Am 121:2959–2969
Latash ML, Zatsiorsky VM (2009) Multi-finger prehension: control of a redundant mechanical system. Adv Exp Med Biol 629:597–618. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-77064-2_32
Lemon RN (2008) Descending pathways in motor control. Annu Rev Neurosci 31:195–218. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.31.060407.125547
Minetti AE, Ardigo LP, McKee T (2007) Keystroke dynamics and timing: accuracy, precision and difference between hands in pianist’s performance. J Biomech 40:3738–3743. doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2007.06.015
Osu R, Franklin DW, Kato H, Gomi H, Domen K, Yoshioka T, Kawato M (2002) Short- and long-term changes in joint co-contraction associated with motor learning as revealed from surface EMG. J Neurophysiol 88:991–1004
Osu R, Kamimura N, Iwasaki H, Nakano E, Harris CM, Wada Y, Kawato M (2004) Optimal impedance control for task achievement in the presence of signal-dependent noise. J Neurophysiol 92:1199–1215. doi:10.1152/jn.00519.2003
Parlitz D, Peschel T, Altenmuller E (1998) Assessment of dynamic finger forces in pianists: effects of training and expertise. J Biomech 31:1063–1067
Santello M, Bianchi M, Gabiccini M et al (2016) Hand synergies: Integration of robotics and neuroscience for understanding the control of biological and artificial hands. Phys Life Rev 17:1–23. doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2016.02.001
Sawers A, Allen JL, Ting LH (2015) Long-term training modifies the modular structure and organization of walking balance control. J Neurophysiol 114:3359–3373. doi:10.1152/jn.00758.2015
Schoonderwaldt E, Demoucron M (2009) Extraction of bowing parameters from violin performance combining motion capture and sensors. J Acoust Soc Am 126:2695–2708. doi:10.1121/1.3227640
Timmann D, Citron R, Watts S, Hore J (2001) Increased variability in finger position occurs throughout overarm throws made by cerebellar and unskilled subjects. J Neurophysiol 86:2690–2702
Weyand PG, Sternlight DB, Bellizzi MJ, Wright S (2000) Faster top running speeds are achieved with greater ground forces not more rapid leg movements. J Appl Physiol (1985) 89:1991–1999
Winges SA, Furuya S, Faber NJ, Flanders M (2013) Patterns of muscle activity for digital coarticulation. J Neurophysiol 110:230–242. doi:10.1152/jn.00973.2012
Acknowledgements
We thank Prof. Hiroshi Kinoshita at Osaka University for providing the specialized piano key equipped with a miniature force sensor on its surface used in the current experiment.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
We have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Additional information
T. Oku and S. Furuya contributed equally to the manuscript.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Oku, T., Furuya, S. Skilful force control in expert pianists. Exp Brain Res 235, 1603–1615 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-4926-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-4926-3