Department of Kinesiology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu City, Taiwan.
Research Center for Mind Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu City, Taiwan.
J Neurophysiol. 2020 Dec 1;124(6):2052-2059. doi: 10.1152/jn.00282.2020. Epub 2020 Oct 28.
Playing the piano involves rapid and precise upper limb movements, which require seamless integration of the proprioceptive and motor systems. In this study, we comprehensively assessed active and passive proprioception and different domains of motor function in young pianists, aiming to understand how their proprioceptive and motor functions are improved. Fifty-seven participants, including seventeen 11- to 12-yr-old (young) pianists, 20 children, and 20 adults, were included. The children in the pianist group had received piano training for 6 yr, whereas the children and adults in the control groups had no previous experience with instrumental training. All participants performed a psychophysical discrimination threshold hunting task and an ipsilateral joint position reproduction task, both of which measured the position sense acuity of the wrist. Their motor function was evaluated by the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd edition. The results revealed that the young pianists showed a significantly lower position sense discrimination threshold (31%) and fewer joint position reproduction errors (49%) than the nontrained children. Second, a higher level of manual dexterity, but not of ball skills or balance, was found in the young pianist group. Third, a higher proprioceptive acuity (i.e., decreased position sense discrimination threshold) significantly correlated with higher manual dexterity. This study documents that a high wrist position sense is a common characteristic among young pianists. The increased upper limb position sense acuity is correlated with better manual dexterity, suggesting that piano practice may benefit untrained fine motor skills in children. We document that improved proprioceptive acuity is a common feature in young pianists. This proprioceptive improvement is associated with both proprioceptive processing and proprioceptive-motor integration. Higher wrist proprioceptive acuity in young pianists is linked to enhanced manual dexterity, which suggests that intensive piano training may improve untrained fine motor skills.
弹钢琴需要上肢快速而精确的运动，这需要本体感觉和运动系统的无缝整合。在这项研究中，我们全面评估了年轻钢琴家的主动和被动本体感觉以及不同运动功能领域，旨在了解他们的本体感觉和运动功能是如何提高的。共有 57 名参与者，包括 17 名 11 至 12 岁的年轻钢琴家、20 名儿童和 20 名成年人。钢琴家组的儿童接受了 6 年的钢琴培训，而对照组的儿童和成年人则没有接受过乐器培训的经验。所有参与者都进行了一项心理物理辨别阈限搜索任务和一项同侧关节位置再现任务，这两项任务都测量了手腕位置感的敏锐度。他们的运动功能通过儿童运动评估第二版（Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd edition）进行评估。结果表明，年轻钢琴家的手腕位置感辨别阈限（31%）明显低于未受过训练的儿童，关节位置再现误差（49%）也明显低于未受过训练的儿童。其次，在年轻钢琴家组中发现了更高的手灵巧度，但球技或平衡能力则没有。第三，更高的本体感觉敏锐度（即降低的位置感辨别阈限）与更高的手灵巧度显著相关。本研究表明，高腕部位置感是年轻钢琴家的共同特征。上肢位置感敏锐度的提高与更好的手灵巧度相关，这表明钢琴练习可能有益于儿童未受过训练的精细运动技能。我们证明，提高本体感觉敏锐度是年轻钢琴家的共同特征。这种本体感觉的提高与本体感觉加工和本体感觉-运动整合有关。年轻钢琴家更高的腕部本体感觉敏锐度与增强的手灵巧度有关，这表明密集的钢琴训练可能会提高未受过训练的精细运动技能。
