Dept. of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Theatre Studies, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada.
BMC Neurosci. 2024 Nov 6;25(1):69. doi: 10.1186/s12868-024-00894-9.
Defining "dance" is challenging, because many distinct classes of human movement may be considered dance in a broad sense. Although the most obvious category is rhythmic dancing to a musical beat, other categories of expressive movement such as dance improvisation, pantomime, tai chi, or Japanese butoh suggest that a more inclusive conception of human dance is needed. Here we propose that a specific type of conscious awareness plays an overarching role in most forms of expressive movement and can be used to define dance (in the broad sense). We can briefly summarize this broader notion of dance as "mindful movement." However, to make this conception explicit and testable, we need an empirically verifiable characterization of "mindful movement." We propose such a characterization in terms of predictive coding and procedural learning theory: mindful movement involves a "suspension" of automatization. When first learning a new motor skill, we are highly conscious of our movements, and this is reflected in neural activation patterns. As skill increases, automatization and overlearning occurs, involving a progressive suppression of conscious awareness. Overlearned, habitual movement patterns become mostly unconscious, entering consciousness only when mistakes or surprising outcomes occur. In mindful movement, this automatization process is essentially inverted or suspended, reactivating previously unconscious details of movement in the conscious workspace, and crucially enabling a renewed aesthetic attention to such details. This wider perspective on dance has important implications for potential animal analogs of human dance and leads to multiple lines of experimental exploration.
定义“舞蹈”具有挑战性，因为许多不同类别的人类运动在广义上都可以被视为舞蹈。虽然最明显的类别是随着音乐节奏跳舞，但其他类别的表达性运动，如即兴舞蹈、哑剧、太极拳或日本舞踏，表明需要更广泛地理解人类舞蹈。在这里，我们提出一种特定类型的意识在大多数形式的表达性运动中起着主导作用，并可用于定义（广义上的）舞蹈。我们可以简要地将这种更广泛的舞蹈概念概括为“正念运动”。然而，为了使这个概念更加明确和可检验，我们需要对“正念运动”进行可经验验证的特征描述。我们根据预测编码和程序学习理论提出了这样的特征描述：正念运动涉及“自动化的暂停”。当首次学习新的运动技能时，我们对自己的动作高度自觉，这反映在神经激活模式中。随着技能的提高，自动化和过度学习发生，意识的参与逐渐减少。经过过度学习的习惯性运动模式变得大多无意识，只有在出现错误或意外结果时才会进入意识。在正念运动中，这个自动化过程本质上被反转或暂停，重新激活运动中先前无意识的细节，并使我们能够重新关注这些细节的美感。这种更广泛的舞蹈视角对人类舞蹈的潜在动物模拟具有重要意义，并引发了多种实验探索的方向。
