Involvement of global coordinative structure in achieving the local pendulum swinging task

PLoS One. 2022 Feb 22;17(2):e0262525. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262525. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

In the literature on inter-limb coordination, the coordination among ''focal'' body parts (i.e., the two limbs) directly engaged in a pendulum swinging task has been studied by immobilizing other body parts to reduce "noise," while putting aside questions of how one maintains posture while performing the task. However, in practical performance of musical instruments, for example, performers must coordinate different body parts in sync with the music while maintaining the whole body's balance. This study demonstrates the effectiveness and necessity of understanding inter-limb coordination in whole-body coordination. Participants were asked to move two pendulums either in sync or alternatively with metronome beeps under two conditions: immobile (fixed forearms) and mobile (forearms not fixed). The explorative analyses focused on whether and how coordinative structures emerged and whether the degree of task achievement differed according to the phase mode, frequency, and mobility conditions. The motion similarity and phase difference between different parts and the pendulums showed that task-specific coordinative structures emerged in both immobile and mobile conditions. In the in-phase mobile condition, the emergent coordinative structure may have improved task achievement, shown by the phase difference between the left and right pendulums. These findings suggest that the global coordinative structure is involved in achieving the local pendulum swinging task.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Arm / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Movement / physiology*
  • Postural Balance / physiology*
  • Posture / physiology
  • Psychomotor Performance / physiology*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research (15K12053) and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (19K12740) (https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/index.html) awarded to FF. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.