Watching People Dance Causes Muscles To Respond In A Way As If You Were Dancing
Picture this: You’re in the audience, watching a ballet performance, and you get the curious feeling that you yourself have just danced. It turns out there’s a scientific explanation behind this strange sensation, one which consists of a series of structures in your brain working to elevate the feeling into something legitimate and real.
These structures are, in actual fact, a series of neurons. To be more specific, they are called ‘mirror neurons’. These neurons are situated in your brain and are activated not just when you perform an action, but also when you watch someone else perform said action. In this case, it would be the action of dancing. Through the use of electroencephalography (EEGS), it has been shown that both performing an action and watching an action triggers the motor planning region of one’s brain. As such, it would seem that humans perceive both processes of doing and watching in the same way.
But, how true is this when it comes to actually seeing someone dance? There is no way that watching someone dance would also cause your muscles to react in the exact same way just as if you were dancing, just because of the stimulation of some specialised neurons in your brain, right?
Well, that’s where you’re wrong. Sort of, anyway. Using fMRI (Functional magnetic resonance imaging) scans, UK-based cognitive neuroscientist Calvo-Merino and her colleagues found that dancers and non-dancers who were asked to observe videos of others dancing perceived the feeling of dancing simply through watching the videos. This feeling was stronger in the dancers as compared to the non-dancers.
However, it is important to note that this study did not take the participants’ muscle reactions into account. It is one thing to mentally perceive the action of dancing, and another thing to have your muscles react as a result. Thus, I am a bit sceptical when it comes to the theory of muscle movements or reactions in relation to mirror neuron activity. Is there really a connection between the two? It is quite likely, but I still think this should remain as food for thought.
– Cassey
Edited by Seraphina Leong
SOURCES
Berrol, C. (2006). Neuroscience meets dance/movement therapy: Mirror neurons, the therapeutic process and empathy. The Arts in Psychotherapy 33 (2006) 302–315. Retrieved from http://www.adta.org/resources/documents/berrol-2006.pdf
Hyman, I. (2012). Listening to Music and Watching Dance Using Mirror Neurons. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-mishaps/201208/listening-music-and-watching-dance-using-mirror-neurons
LaMothe, K. (2013). Did Humans Evolve to Dance (4)? Movement and mirror neurons. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-body-knows/201307/did-humans-evolve-dance-4-movement-and-mirror-neurons
Raymond, J. (2012). Watching dance makes your muscles think they’re grooving. Retrieved from http://bodyodd.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/04/04/10985679-watching-dance-makes-your-muscles-think-theyre-grooving
Tyson, P. (n.d.). DANIEL GLASER’S LATEST STUDY WITH BALLET AND CAPOEIRA DANCERS. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01-resup.html
I didn’t know that watching people dance could make your muscles react. My daughter loves dancing. I’ll have to look into getting her some dancing films.