Biology subjects

Oku, T.

Publications and source records attributed to Oku, T..

9 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Gaze information enhances remote skill transfer of piano performance

Remote instruction is increasingly used to teach complex sensorimotor skills, yet conventional audio-video communication poorly conveys the fine-grained attentional cues that support expert guidance. This study tested whether real-time bidirectional gaze sharing enhances remote transfer of piano performance skill by restoring joint visual attention between teacher and learner. Twenty-seven conservatory-level pianists were randomly assigned either to a group, in which teacher and learner gaze positions were visualized during online instruction, or to a group receiving otherwise identical instruction without gaze cues. We recorded eye movements with wearable eye trackers and evaluated piano performance using a high-resolution key-motion sensing system. Real-time gaze sharing increased learners gaze-pattern similarity to a teacher, which was not evident in the control group. A parallel effect was observed for head-movement similarity. Critically, gaze sharing also reduced variability of the key-descending velocity at the moment of finger-key contact for the right-hand landing after a leap, a feature associated with unstable key-striking velocity. These findings exhibit that gaze information is not merely an auxiliary communication cue but a timing-critical coordination channel for remote motor instruction. By augmenting video-mediated pedagogy with shared attentional dynamics, the proposed system offers a framework for transmitting tacit, high-dexterity skills across distance.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Augmented Feedback Training for Overcoming the Learning Plateau of Motor Expertise

Skilled performers often encounter a plateau in which further practice yields little improvement of intricate sensorimotor skills. Overcoming such limits requires novel training paradigms that can engage performers in novel ways of exploring and refining their actions. Here, we introduce a training pipeline that integrates high-precision motion sensing with augmented feedback to enhance expert-level motor learning. Using piano performance as a model, trained pianists practiced imitating a prize-winning expert's performance of a technically demanding movement sequence. While conventional auditory-based learning offered limited benefit, augmenting practice with trial-by-trial visualizations of discrepancies between the pianist's own movements and those of the expert enabled learners to refine their performance. This training induced richer movement exploration, facilitated closer convergence toward expert motion patterns, and produced perceptible improvements in sound quality evaluated by expert pianists. These findings demonstrate that augmented feedback can break performance plateaus in experts by providing externally-sensed, task-specific information that expands exploration beyond habitual training strategies. Such augmented learning promises new applications across domains where expertise is constrained by entrenched motor habits, including musical performance, athletics, and surgical training.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Performance anxiety is associated with biases in learning from reward and punishment in skilled individuals

Performance anxiety (PA) is common in high-stakes settings, from public speaking to the performing arts, yet its mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using behavioural analysis, computational modelling, and electroencephalography, we tested whether PA biases learning from reward and punishment under varying task uncertainty. Across three experiments with 95 skilled pianists, participants learned hidden melody dynamics through graded reward or punishment feedback. Bayesian hierarchical regression showed that increasing PA levels were associated with faster reward learning under high uncertainty (large action space) but faster punishment learning under low uncertainty (reduced action space). These learning biases--reflecting the interaction between PA and reinforcement type--were associated with reinforcement-driven modulation of motor variability and frontal theta (4-7 Hz) activity encoding feedback changes and signalling motor adjustments. The findings reveal that predisposition to PA in skilled individuals modulates reward- and punishment-based learning in a context-dependent manner governed by task uncertainty.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Robustness and adaptability of sensorimotor skills in expert piano performance

Skillful execution of sequential actions requires the delicate balance of sensorimotor control, encompassing both robustness and adaptability. Previous studies have characterized behavioral and electrophysiological responses to sensory perturbation during performance of sequential movements such as speech and singing. However, it remains unknown whether and in what manner both motor and neural responses, triggered by sensory perturbation, undergo plastic adaptation as a consequence of extensive sensorimotor experience. Here, we addressed this question by comparing effects of transiently delayed tone production on the spatiotemporal patterns of the subsequent motor actions and event-related potentials (ERPs) during fast and accurate piano performance between expert pianists and musically-untrained individuals (non-musicians). Following the delayed tone production, the inter-keystroke interval was abnormally prolonged in non-musicians but not in pianists. By contrast, the keystroke velocity following the tone delay was increased only in the pianists. A regression model further demonstrated that the change in the inter-keystroke interval following the perturbation covaried with the ERPs of the N180 and P300 components particularly at the frontal and parietal regions. In contrast, the alteration in the keystroke velocity was associated with the P300 component of the temporal region ipsilateral to the moving hand, which suggests enhancement of auditory but not somatosensory feedback gain following auditory perturbation. Together, these findings suggest that distinct neural mechanisms underlie robust and adaptive sensorimotor skills individuals with different levels of proficiency.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Brain network flexibility as a predictor of skilled musical performance

Interactions between the body and the environment are dynamically modulated by upcoming sensory information and motor execution. To adapt to this behavioral state-shift, brain activity must also be flexible and possess a large repertoire of brain networks so as to switch them flexibly. Recently, flexible internal brain communications, i.e., brain network flexibility, have come to be recognized as playing a vital role in integrating various sensorimotor information. Therefore, brain network flexibility may be one of the key factors that define sensorimotor skill. However, little is known about how flexible communications within a brain characterizes inter-individual variation of sensorimotor skill and trial-by-trial variability within individuals. To address this, we recruited highly skilled musical performers (i.e. brass instrumentalists) and used a novel approach that combined multichannel-scalp electroencephalography (EEG) recordings, behavioral measurements of musical performance, and mathematical approaches to extract brain network flexibility. We found that brain network flexibility immediately before initiating the performance predicted inter-individual differences in the precision of tone timbre (as represented by spectral centroid of the sound), but not trial-by-trial variability at the individual level. Furthermore, brain network flexibility in broader cortical regions, rather than specific local cortical regions, predicted skilled musical performance, indicating that whole-cortical fluctuations determine individual skill. Our results provide novel evidence that brain network flexibility during movement preparation plays an important role in skilled sensorimotor performance and our findings have potentials for designing a new approach to predict an individuals skill from neural dynamics and a new intervention tool to facilitate physical education.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Plyometric training enhances strength and precision of the finger movements in pianists

Stability of timing and force production in repetitive movements characterizes skillful motor behaviors such as surgery and playing musical instruments. However, even trained individuals such as musicians undergo further extensive training for the improvement of these skills. Previous studies that investigated the lower extremity movements such as jumping and sprinting demonstrated enhancement of the maximum force and rate of force development immediately after the plyometric exercises. However, it remains unknown whether the plyometric exercises enhance the stability of timing and force production of the dexterous finger movements in trained individuals. Here we address this issue by examining the effects of plyometric-like training specialized for finger movements on piano performance by well-trained pianists. The training demonstrated a decrease of the variation in timing and velocity of successive keystrokes, along with a concomitant increase in the rate of force development of the four fingers, but not the thumb, although there was no change in the finger muscular activities through the training. By contrast, such a training effect was not evident following a conventional repetitive piano practice. In addition, a significant increase in the forearm muscle temperature was observed specifically through performing the plyometric exercise with the fingers, implying its association with improved performance. These results indicate effectiveness of the plyometric exercises for improvement of strength, precision, and physiological efficiency of the finger movements even in expert pianists, which implicates a role of ways of practicing in enhancing experts expertise.

physiology↗

bioRxiv2022

Noncontact and high-precision sensing system for piano keys identified fingerprints of virtuosity

Dexterous tool use is typically characterized by fast and precise motions performed by multiple fingers. One representative task is piano playing, which involves fast performance of a sequence of complex motions with high spatiotemporal precision. However, for several decades, a lack of contactless sensing technologies that are capable of precision measurement of piano key motions has been a bottleneck for unveiling how such an outstanding skill is cultivated. Here, we developed a novel sensing system that can record the vertical position of all piano keys with a time resolution of 1 ms and a spatial resolution of 0.01 mm in a noncontact manner. Using this system, we recoded the piano key motions while 49 pianists played a complex sequence of tones that required both individuated and coordinated finger movements to be performed as fast and accurately as possible. Penalized regression using various feature variables of the key motions identified distinct characteristics of the key-depressing and key-releasing motions in relation to the speed and accuracy of the performance. For the maximum rate of the keystrokes, individual differences across the pianists were associated with the peak key descending velocity, the key depression duration, and key-lift timing. For the timing error of the keystrokes, the interindividual differences were associated with the peak ascending velocity of the key and the interstrike variability of both the peak key descending velocity and the key depression duration. These results highlight the importance of dexterous control of the vertical motions of the keys for fast and accurate piano performance.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Back to feedback: aberrant sensorimotor control in music performance under pressure

Precisely timed production of dexterous actions is often destabilized in anxiogenic situations. Previous studies demonstrated that cognitive functions such as attention and working memory as well as autonomic nervous functions are susceptible to induced anxiety in skillful performance while playing sports or musical instruments. However, it is not known whether the degradation of motor functions, sensory perception, or sensorimotor control underlies such a compromise of skillful performance due to psychophysiological distress. Here, we addressed this issue through a series of behavioral experiments, which provided no evidence supporting for detrimental effects of the stress on the perceptual accuracy and precision of the finger movements in pianists. By contrast, after transiently delaying the timing of tone production while playing the piano, the local tempo was abnormally disrupted only under pressure. The results suggest that psychological stress degraded the temporal stability of movement control due to an abnormal increase in sensory feedback gain but not temporal perception or motor precision. A learning experiment further demonstrated that the temporal instability of auditory-motor control under pressure was alleviated after practicing piano while ignoring delayed auditory feedback but not after practicing while compensating for the delayed feedback. Together, these findings suggest an abnormal transition from feedforward to feedback control in expert piano performance in anxiogenic situations, which can be mitigated through specialized sensorimotor training that involves piano practice while volitionally ignoring the artificially delayed provision of auditory feedback.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Neuromuscular and biomechanical functions subserving finger dexterity in musicians

Exceptional finger dexterity enables skillful motor actions such as those required for musical performance. However, it has been not known whether specialized neuromuscular or biomechanical features subserve the dexterity. We aimed to identify the features firstly differentiating the finger dexterity between trained and untrained individuals and secondly accounting for the individual differences in the dexterity across trained individuals. To this aim, two studies were conducted. The first study (Study 1) compared the finger motor dexterity and several neuromuscular and biomechanical characteristics of the fingers between pianists and musically untrained individuals (non-musicians). The results showed no differences in any biomechanical features between the groups with different musical expertise. However, the pianists exhibited faster individual finger movements and more independent control of movements between the fingers. These observations indicate expertise-dependence of the finger motor skills and neuromuscular control of the fingers. The second study (Study 2) assessed individual differences in the finger dexterity between trained pianists. A penalized regression determined an association of the maximum movement speed of the pianists individual fingers with both finger muscular strength and biomechanical characteristics of the hand, but not with independent movement control between the fingers. In addition, none of these features covaried with measures of early and deliberate piano practice. Taken together, these findings indicate that distinct biological factors of finger motor dexterity differentiate between the effects of piano training and individual differences across skilled pianists.

neuroscience↗