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SINAPSIS

Le cerveau dansant

The Dancing Brain

Introduction
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SINAPSIS, Episode 4 - The Dancing Brain

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Why do human beings dance? How does our brain coordinate with precision the countless movements necessary for a dance choreography? What allows dancers to accomplish these impressive movement patterns that never fail to impress us? In order to explore this universe, cognitive neuroscience has focused in the study of our brain activity when we make rhythmic movements or when we observe other people dancing, while also documenting how dance training induces changes in brain structure and function.

Dance is a sophisticated activity, a blend of athletic and artistic training that requires the collaboration of our brain circuits of perception, cognition, emotion and action. Moreover, dancing is a social activity: most of the time, it depends on coordination and synchronization with other human beings. Imitating the movement of others is essential to understand them: the neurons that are activated when we watch other people move - through the so-called “action-observation network”, which includes the famous mirror neurons - are also involved in the recognition of emotions and in social cognition, fundamental for empathy.

Dance is not only good for our physical form: it also develops awareness of our bodily states, exercises our memory, refines our motor skills, allows us to express our emotions and brings us closer to other human beings. In this episode of SINAPSIS, Fernanda Pérez-Gay will explore motor circuits in the brain that allow us to dance and talk about neuroscientific studies that explore the brains of dancers. She will also share the story of Snowball, a dancing cockatoo, and we will have the chance to listen to the perspective of Francisco Gómez-Mont, a Mexican researcher interested in the links between neuroscience and dance, which, in his own words "combines three elements whose health benefits have been demonstrated separately: musical experience, physical exercise and meditative states”.

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In México, SINAPSIS, Conexiones entre el art y tu cerebro, has been possible thanks to the generous support of the Secretaria de Cultura del Gobierno de México and their Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes FONCA.
 

In Canada, SINAPSIS, Connections between art and your brain / Connexions entre l'art et votre cerveau, is possible thanks to the support of the Centre de recherche en éthique - CRÉ, the support and generous economical contribution of the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ & FRQSC), the ACT Programa Arte, Ciencia, y Tecnologías, and The Convergence Initiative.

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References

SINAPSIS, Reference Episode 4

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Dance and movement, from perception to action

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  1. Blake, R., & Shiffrar, M. (2007). Perception of human motion. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 47–73. Bläsing, B., Puttke, M., & Schack, T. (Eds.). (2010). The neurocognition of dance. London: Psychology Press.

  2. Bläsing, B., Calvo-Merino, B., Cross, E. S., Jola, C., Honisch, J., & Stevens, C. J. (2012). Neurocognitive control in dance perception and performance. Acta Psychologica, 139(2), 300–308. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.005

  3. Brown, S., Martinez, M. J., & Parsons, L. M. (2006). The neural basis of human dance. Cerebral Cortex, 16(8), 1157–1167.

  4. Calvo-Merino, B. (2010). Neural mechanisms for seeing dance. In B. Bläsing, M. Puttke, & T. Schack(Eds.), The neurocognition of dance. London: Psychology Press.

  5. Ingraham, P. (2013) Proprioception, the true sixth sense. PainScience.com https://www.painscience.com/articles/sixth-sense.php

  6. Tuthill, J. C., & Azim, E. (2018). Proprioception. Current Biology, 28(5), R194–R203.

 

The dancer’s brain

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  1. Calvo-Merino, B., Jola, C., Glaser, D. E., & Haggard, P. (2008). Towards a sensorimotor aesthetics of performing art. Consciousness and Cognition, 17(3), 911–922.

  2. Calvo-Merino, D.E. Glaser, J. Grèzes, R.E. Passingham, P. Haggard, Action Observation and Acquired Motor Skills: An fMRI Study with Expert Dancers, Cerebral Cortex, Volume 15, Issue 8, August 2005, Pages 1243–1249, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhi007​

  3. Cross, E. S. (2010). Building a dance in the human brain: Insights from expert and novice dancers. In B. Bläsing, M. Puttke, & T. Schack (Eds.), The neurocognition of dance. London: Psychology Press.

  4. Karpati, F.J., Giacosa, C., Foster, N.E., Penhune, V.B. and Hyde, K.L. (2015), Dance and the brain: a review. Annals of the N.Y. Academy of Sciences, 1337: 140-146. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.12632​

  5. Karpati, F.J., Giacosa, C., Foster, N.E.V. et al. (2016). Sensorimotor integration is enhanced in dancers and musicians. Experimental Brain Research 234, 893–903

 

Action-observation network and mirror neurons

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  1. Cross, E. S., Hamilton, A. F., & Grafton, S. T. (2006). Building a motor simulation de novo: Observation of dance by dancers. Neuroimage, 31(3), 1257–1267.

  2. Cross, E. S., Kraemer, D. J., Hamilton, A. F., Kelley, W. M., & Grafton, S. T. (2009b). Sensitivity of the action observation network to physical and observational learning. Cerebral Cortex, 19(2), 315–326.

  3. Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004). The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, 169–192.

 

Dance’s therapeutic potential

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  1. Berrol, C.F.,  Neuroscience meets dance/movement therapy: Mirror neurons, the therapeutic process and empathy (2006). The Arts in Psychotherapy, 33 (4), 302-315.

  2. McGarry, L. M., & Russo, F. A. (2011). Mirroring in Dance/Movement Therapy: Potential mechanisms behind empathy enhancement. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 38(3), 178–184.

 

Dance and interoception

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  1. Christensen, JF, Gaigg, SB, Calvo‐Merino, B. (2018). I can feel my heartbeat: Dancers have increased interoceptive accuracy. Psychophysiology, 55, e13008. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13008​

  2. The dancer’s sixth sense: Interoception. American Council of Science and Health. https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/11/07/dancers-sixth-sense-interoception-12100

 

Are humans the only dancing animal?

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  1. Patel, A. D., Iversen, J. R., Bregman, M. R., & Schulz, I. (2009). Experimental Evidence for Synchronization to a Musical Beat in a Nonhuman Animal. Current Biology, 19(10), 827–830. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.03.038

  2. Schachner, A., Brady, T. F., Pepperberg, I. M., & Hauser, M. D. (2009). Spontaneous Motor Entrainment to Music in Multiple Vocal Mimicking Species. Current Biology, 19(10), 831–836. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.03.061

  3. Ten Cate., Spierings, M., Jeroen, H., Henkjan, H. (2016). Can Birds Perceive Rhythmic Patterns? A Review and Experiments on a Songbird and a Parrot Species. Frontiers in Psychology 7, 730. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/1...​

 

Dance and neuroplasticity

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  1. Teixeira-Machado, L., Arida, R. M., & de Jesus Mari, J. (2019). Dance for neuroplasticity: A descriptive systematic review. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 96, 232–240.

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Préface
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SINAPSIS, Épisode 4 - Le cerveau dansant​

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Pourquoi les êtres humains dansent-ils? Comment notre cerveau s'y prend-il pour coordonner avec précision les innombrables mouvements nécessaires à une chorégraphie de danse ? Qu'est-ce qui permet aux danseurs d'accomplir ces prouesses qui ne manquent jamais de nous impressionner? Afin d'explorer cet univers, les neurosciences cognitives se sont intéressées, entre autres, à l'analyse des changements de structure et de fonction survenant dans le cerveau d'un danseur qui s'entraîne, ou encore à l'observation de l'activité cérébrale lorsque nous réalisons des mouvements rythmiques ou lorsque nous observons les autres danser.

La danse est une activité sophistiquée, un mélange d'entraînement athlétique et artistique qui requière la collaboration de nos circuits cérébraux de la perception, de la cognition, de l'émotion et de l'action. Par ailleurs, la danse est une activité sociale : la plupart du temps, elle dépend de la coordination et de la synchronisation avec d'autres êtres humains. Imiter le mouvement des autres est essentiel pour bien les comprendre : ainsi les neurones qui s'activent quand nous observons le mouvement des autres -organisés dans le « réseau d'observation de l'action », qui inclue les fameux neurones miroirs – sont également impliqués dans la reconnaissance des émotions et dans la cognition sociale, fondamentales pour l'empathie.

Rappelons que la danse n'est pas seulement bonne pour notre forme physique : elle développe également la conscience de nos états intérieurs, exerce notre mémoire, affine notre motricité, nous permet d'exprimer nos émotions et nous rapproche des autres humains. Dans cet épisode de SINAPSIS, Fernanda Pérez-Gay explorera les circuits moteurs du cerveau qui nous permettent de danser, nous parlera des études neuroscientifiques qui analysent les cerveaux de danseurs. Elle nous partagera aussi l’histoire de Snowball, un cacatoès qui danse et nous aurons la chance d’écouter la perspective de Francisco Gómez-Mont, un chercheur mexicain qui s'intéresse aux liens entre les neurosciences et la danse, que, selon ses propres mots « conjugue trois éléments dont les bénéfices pour la santé ont été démontrés séparément : l'expérience musicale, l'exercice physique et un état mental de type méditatif ».

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___________________________

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Au Mexique, SINAPSIS, Conexiones entre el art y tu cerebro, a été possible grâce au généreux soutien du Secretaria de Cultura del Gobierno de México et de leur Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes FONCA.


Au Canada, SINAPSIS, Connexions entre l'art et votre cerveau / Connexions entre l'art et votre cerveau, est possible grâce au soutien du Centre de recherche en éthique - CRÉ, au soutien et à la généreuse contribution économique du Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ & FRQSC), l'ACT Programa Arte, Ciencia, y Tecnologías, et L'Initiative Convergence.

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Références
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SINAPSIS, Référence pour l'épisode 4

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Danse et mouvement, de la perception à l’action

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  1. Blake, R., & Shiffrar, M. (2007). Perception of human motion. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 47–73. Bläsing, B., Puttke, M., & Schack, T. (Eds.). (2010). The neurocognition of dance. London: Psychology Press.

  2. Bläsing, B., Calvo-Merino, B., Cross, E. S., Jola, C., Honisch, J., & Stevens, C. J. (2012). Neurocognitive control in dance perception and performance. Acta Psychologica, 139(2), 300–308. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.005

  3. Brown, S., Martinez, M. J., & Parsons, L. M. (2006). The neural basis of human dance. Cerebral Cortex, 16(8), 1157–1167.

  4. Calvo-Merino, B. (2010). Neural mechanisms for seeing dance. In B. Bläsing, M. Puttke, & T. Schack(Eds.), The neurocognition of dance. London: Psychology Press.

  5. Ingraham, P. (2013) Proprioception, the true sixth sense. PainScience.com https://www.painscience.com/articles/sixth-sense.php

  6. Tuthill, J. C., & Azim, E. (2018). Proprioception. Current Biology, 28(5), R194–R203.

 

Le cerveau du danseur

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  1. Calvo-Merino, B., Jola, C., Glaser, D. E., & Haggard, P. (2008). Towards a sensorimotor aesthetics of performing art. Consciousness and Cognition, 17(3), 911–922.

  2. Calvo-Merino, D.E. Glaser, J. Grèzes, R.E. Passingham, P. Haggard, Action Observation and Acquired Motor Skills: An fMRI Study with Expert Dancers, Cerebral Cortex, Volume 15, Issue 8, August 2005, Pages 1243–1249, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhi007​

  3. Cross, E. S. (2010). Building a dance in the human brain: Insights from expert and novice dancers. In B. Bläsing, M. Puttke, & T. Schack (Eds.), The neurocognition of dance. London: Psychology Press.

  4. Karpati, F.J., Giacosa, C., Foster, N.E., Penhune, V.B. and Hyde, K.L. (2015), Dance and the brain: a review. Annals of the N.Y. Academy of Sciences, 1337: 140-146. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.12632​

  5. Karpati, F.J., Giacosa, C., Foster, N.E.V. et al. (2016). Sensorimotor integration is enhanced in dancers and musicians. Experimental Brain Research 234, 893–903

 

 

Réseau d’observation de l’action et neurones miroir

​

  1. Cross, E. S., Hamilton, A. F., & Grafton, S. T. (2006). Building a motor simulation de novo: Observation of dance by dancers. Neuroimage, 31(3), 1257–1267.

  2. Cross, E. S., Kraemer, D. J., Hamilton, A. F., Kelley, W. M., & Grafton, S. T. (2009b). Sensitivity of the action observation network to physical and observational learning. Cerebral Cortex, 19(2), 315–326.

  3. Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004). The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, 169–192.

 

Potentiel thérapeutique de la danse

​

  1. Berrol, C.F.,  Neuroscience meets dance/movement therapy: Mirror neurons, the therapeutic process and empathy (2006). The Arts in Psychotherapy, 33 (4), 302-315.

  2. McGarry, L. M., & Russo, F. A. (2011). Mirroring in Dance/Movement Therapy: Potential mechanisms behind empathy enhancement. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 38(3), 178–184.

 

Danse et interoception

​

  1. Christensen, JF, Gaigg, SB, Calvo‐Merino, B. (2018). I can feel my heartbeat: Dancers have increased interoceptive accuracy. Psychophysiology, 55, e13008. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13008​

  2. The dancer’s sixth sense: Interoception. American Council of Science and Health. https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/11/07/dancers-sixth-sense-interoception-12100

 

Les humains sont-ils les seuls animaux qui dansent?

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  1. Patel, A. D., Iversen, J. R., Bregman, M. R., & Schulz, I. (2009). Experimental Evidence for Synchronization to a Musical Beat in a Nonhuman Animal. Current Biology, 19(10), 827–830. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.03.038

  2. Schachner, A., Brady, T. F., Pepperberg, I. M., & Hauser, M. D. (2009). Spontaneous Motor Entrainment to Music in Multiple Vocal Mimicking Species. Current Biology, 19(10), 831–836. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.03.061

  3. Ten Cate., Spierings, M., Jeroen, H., Henkjan, H. (2016). Can Birds Perceive Rhythmic Patterns? A Review and Experiments on a Songbird and a Parrot Species. Frontiers in Psychology 7, 730. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/1...​

  4.  

 

Danse et neuroplasticité

​

  1. Teixeira-Machado, L., Arida, R. M., & de Jesus Mari, J. (2019). Dance for neuroplasticity: A descriptive systematic review. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 96, 232–240.

Danse.png
cultura_fonca_color.png
CRE.jpg
FRQ-3F(NT-S-SC)_pr_v2.png
logoact.png
Convergence Initiative Logo 2019.png
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