Sex-Specific Brain Responses to Imaginary Dance but Not Physical Dance: An Electroencephalography Study of Functional Connectivity and Electrical Brain Activity

Abstract

To date, most neurophysiological dance research has been conducted exclusively with female participants in observational studies (i.e., participants observe or imagine a dance choreography). In this regard, the sex-specific acute neurophysiological effect of physically executed dance can be considered a widely unexplored field of research. This study examines the acute impact of a modern jazz dance choreography on brain activity and functional connectivity using electroencephalography (EEG). In a within-subject design, 11 female and 11 male participants were examined under four test conditions: physically dancing the choreography with and without music and imagining the choreography with and without music. Prior to the EEG measurements, the participants acquired the choreography over 3 weeks with one session per week. Subsequently, the participants conducted all four test conditions in a randomized order on a single day, with the EEG measurements taken before and after each condition. Differences between the male and female participants were established in brain activity and functional connectivity analyses under the condition of imagined dance without music. No statistical differences between sexes were found in the other three conditions (physically executed dance with and without music as well as imagined dance with music). Physically dancing and music seem to have sex-independent effects on the human brain. However, thinking of dance without music seems to be rather sex-specific. The results point to a promising approach to decipher sex-specific differences in the use of dance or music. This approach could further be used to achieve a more group-specific or even more individualized and situationally adapted use of dance interventions, e.g., in the context of sports, physical education, or therapy. The extent to which the identified differences are due to culturally specific attitudes in the sex-specific contact with dance and music needs to be clarified in future research.

Autoren

Johanna Wind
Fabian Horst
Nikolas Rizzi
Alexander John
Tamara Kurti
Wolfgang I Schöllhorn

DOI

10.3389/fnbeh.2021.731881

eISSN

1662-5153

Zeitschrift

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

Online publication date

2021

Status

Published online

Herausgeber

Frontiers Media SA

Herausgeber URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.731881

Datum der Datenerfassung

2021

Titel

Sex-Specific Brain Responses to Imaginary Dance but Not Physical Dance: An Electroencephalography Study of Functional Connectivity and Electrical Brain Activity

Ausgabe der Zeitschrift

15

Data source: Crossref

Abstract

To date, most neurophysiological dance research has been conducted exclusively with female participants in observational studies (i.e., participants observe or imagine a dance choreography). In this regard, the sex-specific acute neurophysiological effect of physically executed dance can be considered a widely unexplored field of research. This study examines the acute impact of a modern jazz dance choreography on brain activity and functional connectivity using electroencephalography (EEG). In a within-subject design, 11 female and 11 male participants were examined under four test conditions: physically dancing the choreography with and without music and imagining the choreography with and without music. Prior to the EEG measurements, the participants acquired the choreography over 3 weeks with one session per week. Subsequently, the participants conducted all four test conditions in a randomized order on a single day, with the EEG measurements taken before and after each condition. Differences between the male and female participants were established in brain activity and functional connectivity analyses under the condition of imagined dance without music. No statistical differences between sexes were found in the other three conditions (physically executed dance with and without music as well as imagined dance with music). Physically dancing and music seem to have sex-independent effects on the human brain. However, thinking of dance without music seems to be rather sex-specific. The results point to a promising approach to decipher sex-specific differences in the use of dance or music. This approach could further be used to achieve a more group-specific or even more individualized and situationally adapted use of dance interventions, e.g., in the context of sports, physical education, or therapy. The extent to which the identified differences are due to culturally specific attitudes in the sex-specific contact with dance and music needs to be clarified in future research.

Addresses

Department of Training and Movement Science, Institute of Sport Science, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.

Autoren

Johanna Wind
Fabian Horst
Nikolas Rizzi
Alexander John
Tamara Kurti
Wolfgang I Schöllhorn

DOI

10.3389/fnbeh.2021.731881

eISSN

1662-5153

Externe Identifier

PubMed Identifier: 34975427
PubMed Central ID: PMC8715740

Open access

true

ISSN

1662-5153

Zeitschrift

Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience

Sprache

eng

Medium

Electronic-eCollection

Online publication date

2021

Open access status

Open Access

Paginierung

731881

Datum der Veröffentlichung

2021

Status

Published

Publisher licence

CC BY

Datum der Datenerfassung

2022

Titel

Sex-Specific Brain Responses to Imaginary Dance but Not Physical Dance: An Electroencephalography Study of Functional Connectivity and Electrical Brain Activity.

Sub types

research-article
Journal Article

Ausgabe der Zeitschrift

15

Files

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.731881/pdf https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8715740?pdf=render

Data source: Europe PubMed Central

Abstract

To date, most neurophysiological dance research has been conducted exclusively with female participants in observational studies (i.e., participants observe or imagine a dance choreography). In this regard, the sex-specific acute neurophysiological effect of physically executed dance can be considered a widely unexplored field of research. This study examines the acute impact of a modern jazz dance choreography on brain activity and functional connectivity using electroencephalography (EEG). In a within-subject design, 11 female and 11 male participants were examined under four test conditions: physically dancing the choreography with and without music and imagining the choreography with and without music. Prior to the EEG measurements, the participants acquired the choreography over 3 weeks with one session per week. Subsequently, the participants conducted all four test conditions in a randomized order on a single day, with the EEG measurements taken before and after each condition. Differences between the male and female participants were established in brain activity and functional connectivity analyses under the condition of imagined dance without music. No statistical differences between sexes were found in the other three conditions (physically executed dance with and without music as well as imagined dance with music). Physically dancing and music seem to have sex-independent effects on the human brain. However, thinking of dance without music seems to be rather sex-specific. The results point to a promising approach to decipher sex-specific differences in the use of dance or music. This approach could further be used to achieve a more group-specific or even more individualized and situationally adapted use of dance interventions, e.g., in the context of sports, physical education, or therapy. The extent to which the identified differences are due to culturally specific attitudes in the sex-specific contact with dance and music needs to be clarified in future research.

Date of acceptance

2021

Autoren

Johanna Wind
Fabian Horst
Nikolas Rizzi
Alexander John
Tamara Kurti
Wolfgang I Schöllhorn

Autoren-URL

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34975427

DOI

10.3389/fnbeh.2021.731881

Externe Identifier

PubMed Central ID: PMC8715740

ISSN

1662-5153

Zeitschrift

Front Behav Neurosci

Schlüsselwörter

EEG
coherence
connectivity
dance
physical activity
power spectrum
sex differences

Sprache

eng

Country

Switzerland

Paginierung

731881

Datum der Veröffentlichung

2021

Status

Published online

Titel

Sex-Specific Brain Responses to Imaginary Dance but Not Physical Dance: An Electroencephalography Study of Functional Connectivity and Electrical Brain Activity.

Sub types

Journal Article

Ausgabe der Zeitschrift

15

Data source: PubMed

Author's licence

CC-BY

Autoren

Johanna Wind
Fabian Horst
Nikolas Rizzi
Alexander John
Tamara Kurti
Wolfgang I Schöllhorn

Hosting institution

Universitätsbibliothek Mainz

Sammlungen

JGU-Publikationen

Resource version

Published version

DOI

10.3389/fnbeh.2021.731881

Funding acknowledgements

Open Access-Publizieren Universität Mainz / Universitätsmedizin Mainz

File(s) embargoed

false

Open access

true

ISSN

1662-5153

Zeitschrift

Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience

Schlüsselwörter

796 Sport
796 Athletic and outdoor sports and games

Sprache

eng

Open access status

Open Access

Paginierung

731881

Datum der Veröffentlichung

2021

Public URL

https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/6849

Herausgeber

Frontiers Research Foundation

Datum der Datenerfassung

2022

Datum, an dem der Datensatz öffentlich gemacht wurde

2022

Zugang

Public

Titel

Sex-specific brain responses to imaginary dance but not physical dance : an electroencephalography study of functional connectivity and electrical brain activity

Ausgabe der Zeitschrift

15

Files

sexspecific_brain_responses_t-20220322103535206.pdf

Data source: OPENSCIENCE.UB

Sex-Specific Brain Responses to Imaginary Dance but Not Physical Dance: An Electroencephalography Study of Functional Connectivity and Electrical Brain Activity

Files

Files

Tools