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Frontiers in Psychology 2021High-level improvising musicians master idiosyncratic gesture vocabularies that allow them to express themselves in unique ways. The full use of such vocabularies is...
High-level improvising musicians master idiosyncratic gesture vocabularies that allow them to express themselves in unique ways. The full use of such vocabularies is nevertheless challenged when improvisers incorporate electronics in their performances. To control electronic sounds and effects, they typically use commercial interfaces whose physicality is likely to limit their freedom of movement. Based on Jim Black's descriptions of his ideal digital musical instrument, embodied improvisation gestures, and stage performance constraints, we develop the concept of a modular wearable MIDI interface to closely meet the needs of professional improvisers, rather than proposing a new generic instrument that would require substantial practice to adapt improvisational techniques already acquired. Our research draws upon different bodies of knowledge, from theoretical principles on collaboration and embodiment to wearable interface design, in order to create a digital vest called that features two innovative on-body sensors. Allowing for sound control, these sensors are seamlessly integrated with Black's improvisational gesture vocabulary. We then detail the design process of three TIZI prototypes structured by the outcomes of a performance test with Black, a public performance by a novice improviser during the 2017 International Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, and measurements of sensor responses. After commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of the final TIZI prototype, we discuss how our interdisciplinary and collective process involving a world-class improviser at the very center of the design process can provide recommendations to designers who wish to create interfaces better adapted to high-level performers. Finally, we present our goals for the future creation of a wireless version of the vest for a female body based on Diana Policarpo's artistic vision.
PubMed: 33912095
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.576810 -
PloS One 2017Synchronized movement is a ubiquitous feature of dance and music performance. Much research into the evolutionary origins of these cultural practices has focused on why...
Synchronized movement is a ubiquitous feature of dance and music performance. Much research into the evolutionary origins of these cultural practices has focused on why humans perform rather than watch or listen to dance and music. In this study, we show that movement synchrony among a group of performers predicts the aesthetic appreciation of live dance performances. We developed a choreography that continuously manipulated group synchronization using a defined movement vocabulary based on arm swinging, walking and running. The choreography was performed live to four audiences, as we continuously tracked the performers' movements, and the spectators' affective responses. We computed dynamic synchrony among performers using cross recurrence analysis of data from wrist accelerometers, and implicit measures of arousal from spectators' heart rates. Additionally, a subset of spectators provided continuous ratings of enjoyment and perceived synchrony using tablet computers. Granger causality analyses demonstrate predictive relationships between synchrony, enjoyment ratings and spectator arousal, if audiences form a collectively consistent positive or negative aesthetic evaluation. Controlling for the influence of overall movement acceleration and visual change, we show that dance communicates group coordination via coupled movement dynamics among a group of performers. Our findings are in line with an evolutionary function of dance-and perhaps all performing arts-in transmitting social signals between groups of people. Human movement is the common denominator of dance, music and theatre. Acknowledging the time-sensitive and immediate nature of the performer-spectator relationship, our study makes a significant step towards an aesthetics of joint actions in the performing arts.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Arousal; Auditory Perception; Dancing; Esthetics; Female; Heart Rate; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Movement; Music; Pleasure; Visual Perception; Walking; Young Adult
PubMed: 28742849
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180101 -
PLoS Computational Biology Sep 2022Improving biological plausibility and functional capacity are two important goals for brain models that connect low-level neural details to high-level behavioral...
Improving biological plausibility and functional capacity are two important goals for brain models that connect low-level neural details to high-level behavioral phenomena. We develop a method called "oracle-supervised Neural Engineering Framework" (osNEF) to train biologically-detailed spiking neural networks that realize a variety of cognitively-relevant dynamical systems. Specifically, we train networks to perform computations that are commonly found in cognitive systems (communication, multiplication, harmonic oscillation, and gated working memory) using four distinct neuron models (leaky-integrate-and-fire neurons, Izhikevich neurons, 4-dimensional nonlinear point neurons, and 4-compartment, 6-ion-channel layer-V pyramidal cell reconstructions) connected with various synaptic models (current-based synapses, conductance-based synapses, and voltage-gated synapses). We show that osNEF networks exhibit the target dynamics by accounting for nonlinearities present within the neuron models: performance is comparable across all four systems and all four neuron models, with variance proportional to task and neuron model complexity. We also apply osNEF to build a model of working memory that performs a delayed response task using a combination of pyramidal cells and inhibitory interneurons connected with NMDA and GABA synapses. The baseline performance and forgetting rate of the model are consistent with animal data from delayed match-to-sample tasks (DMTST): we observe a baseline performance of 95% and exponential forgetting with time constant τ = 8.5s, while a recent meta-analysis of DMTST performance across species observed baseline performances of 58 - 99% and exponential forgetting with time constants of τ = 2.4 - 71s. These results demonstrate that osNEF can train functional brain models using biologically-detailed components and open new avenues for investigating the relationship between biophysical mechanisms and functional capabilities.
Topics: Action Potentials; Animals; Models, Neurological; Neurons; Pyramidal Cells; Synapses
PubMed: 36074765
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010461 -
Memory & Cognition Apr 2024To acquire and process information, performers can frequently rely on both internal and extended cognitive strategies. However, after becoming acquainted with two...
To acquire and process information, performers can frequently rely on both internal and extended cognitive strategies. However, after becoming acquainted with two strategies, performers in previous studies exhibited a pronounced behavioral preference for just one strategy, which we refer to as perseveration. What is the origin of such perseveration? Previous research suggests that a prime reason for cognitive strategy choice is performance: Perseveration could reflect the preference for a superior strategy as determined by accurately monitoring each strategy's performance. However, following our preregistered hypotheses, we conjectured that perseveration persisted even if the available strategies featured similar performances. Such persisting perseveration could be reasonable if costs related to decision making, performance monitoring, and strategy switching would be additionally taken into account on top of isolated strategy performances. Here, we used a calibration procedure to equalize performances of strategies as far as possible and tested whether perseveration persisted. In Experiment 1, performance adjustment of strategies succeeded in equating accuracy but not speed. Many participants perseverated on the faster strategy. In Experiment 2, calibration succeeded regarding both accuracy and speed. No substantial perseveration was detected, and residual perseveration was conceivably related to metacognitive performance evaluations. We conclude that perseveration on cognitive strategies is frequently rooted in performance: Performers willingly use multiple strategies for the same task if performance differences appear sufficiently small. Surprisingly, other possible reasons for perseveration like effort or switch cost avoidance, mental challenge seeking, satisficing, or episodic retrieval of previous stimulus-strategy-bindings, were less relevant in the present study.
Topics: Humans; Cognition
PubMed: 37874485
DOI: 10.3758/s13421-023-01475-7 -
Multiple Sclerosis (Houndmills,... Apr 2022Suboptimal performance during neuropsychological assessment renders cognitive test results invalid. However, suboptimal performance has rarely been investigated in...
BACKGROUND
Suboptimal performance during neuropsychological assessment renders cognitive test results invalid. However, suboptimal performance has rarely been investigated in multiple sclerosis (MS).
OBJECTIVES
To investigate potential underlying mechanisms of suboptimal performance in MS.
METHODS
Performance validity testing, neuropsychological assessments, neuroimaging, and questionnaires were analyzed in 99 MS outpatients with cognitive complaints. Based on performance validity testing patients were classified as valid or invalid performers, and based on neuropsychological test results as cognitively impaired or preserved. Group comparisons and correlational analyses were performed on demographics, patient-reported, and disease-related outcomes.
RESULTS
Twenty percent displayed invalid performance. Invalid and valid performers did not differ regarding demographic, patient-reported, and disease-related outcomes. Disease severity of invalid and valid performers with cognitive impairment was comparable, but worse than cognitively preserved valid performers. Lower performance validity scores related to lower cognitive functioning, lower education, being male, and higher disability levels ( < 0.05).
CONCLUSION
Suboptimal performance frequently occurs in patients with MS and cognitive complaints. In both clinical practice and in cognitive research, suboptimal performance should be considered in the interpretation of cognitive outcomes. Identification of factors that differentiate between suboptimal and optimal performers with cognitive impairment needs further exploration.
Topics: Cognition; Cognitive Dysfunction; Humans; Male; Multiple Sclerosis; Neuropsychological Tests; Outpatients
PubMed: 34212754
DOI: 10.1177/13524585211025780 -
Frontiers in Physiology 2023There is a growing interest in the scientific community about the progression and congruity in the performance of talented participants who complete representing...
There is a growing interest in the scientific community about the progression and congruity in the performance of talented participants who complete representing different nations in the most important international events. The prediction of incoming performances is nowadays in demand with the objective of returning in talent investment. Talent identification programs have tried to select and develop sports talent over years. However, to our knowledge, there is a lack of research about success in swimming World Championships (WCs) performance considering continents-country and how successful outcomes are influenced by these variables. Therefore, the primary goal is to analyze the effect of early specialization comparing the performance progression model of the countries gathered by continents. Participant's data from all Junior and Senior WCs between 2006 and 2017 from International Swimming Federation (FINA). One-way ANOVA, ANCOVA and regression model were used to explain whether the variable category, age, best z-score, experience, and continent influences the performance obtained in Absolute WC. Significant differences ( < 0.01) were found between the average performance obtained by the two different categories (junior: swimmers participating in junior WCs before senior WCs; senior: swimmers participating in senior WCs without previous participation in junior WCs), where swimmers from category junior showed significant better performance's times than seniors, except in America. ANCOVA results showed that generally, the greatest differences where in the earliest ages, with best performance registered in category junior in all the continents. Also, the experience was a significant variable in the general model. Swimmers who had participated in junior category prior absolute obtained better performance's times than those swimmers who participated directly in absolute, in the first participation in senior WC. Thus, early specialization is a key factor to obtain better results in senior WCs for all the continents, except in America.
PubMed: 37288433
DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1075167 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2018Music performance is inherently social. Most music is performed in groups, and even soloists are subject to influence from a (real or imagined) audience. It is also... (Review)
Review
Music performance is inherently social. Most music is performed in groups, and even soloists are subject to influence from a (real or imagined) audience. It is also inherently creative. Performers are called upon to interpret notated music, improvise new musical material, adapt to unexpected playing conditions, and accommodate technical errors. The focus of this paper is how creativity is distributed across members of a music ensemble as they perform these tasks. Some aspects of ensemble performance have been investigated extensively in recent years as part of the broader literature on joint action (e.g., the processes underlying sensorimotor synchronization). Much of this research has been done under highly controlled conditions, using tasks that generate reliable results, but capture only a small part of ensemble performance as it occurs naturalistically. Still missing from this literature is an explanation of how ensemble musicians perform in conditions that require creative interpretation, improvisation, and/or adaptation: how do they coordinate the production of something new? Current theories of creativity endorse the idea that dynamic interaction between individuals, their actions, and their social and material environments underlies creative performance. This framework is much in line with the embodied music cognition paradigm and the dynamical systems perspective on ensemble coordination. This review begins by situating the concept of collaborative musical creativity in the context of embodiment. Progress that has been made toward identifying the mechanisms that underlie collaborative creativity in music performance is then assessed. The focus is on the possible role of musical imagination in facilitating performer flexibility, and on the forms of communication that are likely to support the coordination of creative musical output. Next, emergence and group flow-constructs that seem to characterize ensemble performance at its peak-are considered, and some of the conditions that may encourage periods of emergence or flow are identified. Finally, it is argued that further research is needed to (1) demystify the constructs of emergence and group flow, clarifying their effects on performer experience and listener response, (2) determine how constrained musical imagination is by perceptual experience and understand people's capacity to depart from familiar frameworks and imagine new sounds and sound structures, and (3) assess the technological developments that are supposed to facilitate or enhance musical creativity, and determine what effect they have on the processes underlying creative collaboration.
PubMed: 30087645
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01285 -
Frontiers in Robotics and AI 2019Feedback is essential for skill acquisition as it helps identifying and correcting performance errors. Nowadays, Virtual Reality can be used as a tool to guide motor...
Feedback is essential for skill acquisition as it helps identifying and correcting performance errors. Nowadays, Virtual Reality can be used as a tool to guide motor learning, and to provide innovative types of augmented feedback that exceed real world opportunities. Concurrent feedback has shown to be especially beneficial for novices. Moreover, watching skilled performances helps novices to acquire a motor skill, and this effect depends on the perspective taken by the observer. To date, however, the impact of watching one's own performance together with full body superimposition of a skilled performance, either from the front or from the side, remains to be explored. Here we used an immersive, state-of-the-art, low-latency cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE), and we asked novices to perform squat movements in front of a virtual mirror. Participants were assigned to one of three concurrent visual feedback groups: participants either watched their own avatar performing full body movements or were presented with the movement of a skilled individual superimposed on their own performance during movement execution, either from a frontal or from a side view. Motor performance and cognitive representation were measured in order to track changes in movement quality as well as motor memory across time. Consistent with our hypotheses, results showed an advantage of the groups that observed their own avatar performing the squat together with the superimposed skilled performance for some of the investigated parameters, depending on perspective. Specifically, for the deepest point of the squat, participants watching the squat from the front adapted their height, while those watching from the side adapted their backward movement. In a control experiment, we ruled out the possibility that the observed improvements were due to the mere fact of performing the squat movements-irrespective of the type of visual feedback. The present findings indicate that it can be beneficial for novices to watch themselves together with a skilled performance during execution, and that improvement depends on the perspective chosen.
PubMed: 33501059
DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2019.00043 -
The Hastings Center Report Sep 2023Building trust between academic medical centers and certain communities they depend on in the research process is hard, particularly when those communities consist of...
Building trust between academic medical centers and certain communities they depend on in the research process is hard, particularly when those communities consist of minoritized or historically marginalized populations. Some believe that engagement activities like the creation of advisory boards, town halls, or a research workforce that looks more like community members will establish or reestablish trust between academic medical centers and racialized communities. However, without systematic approaches to dismantle racism, those well-intended actions become public performativity, and trust building will fail. In this essay, we draw upon foundational ethical principles of trust, distrust, and trust building; apply the concept of bounded justice to performative trust acts; and center the works of Black and Indigenous feminist bioethicists to revisit some of the wisdom and valuable lessons they have contributed. Rebuilding trust is hard to do because people and institutions are often not honest about how hard it is and there is no simple box-checking task that can disentangle our society's injustices, but there are steps to take in this direction. Individuals and institutions can recognize valuable relevant work that has already been written, partake in critical reflection, and then apply insights gained to take both small and sustainable steps toward transformational change and deeper trust.
Topics: Humans; Trust; Racism; Ethicists
PubMed: 37963054
DOI: 10.1002/hast.1527