focal dystonia speculation

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Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

focal dystonia speculation

As I was practicing some tremolo exercises just now, I thought about that horrible focal dystonia. I was practicing pami on one string, then switching it to pima, then back and forth, and I thought to myself--this is not a good idea. It is a good idea to be able to do it both ways and get that control, but if my ear hears da da da da and I'm playing pami and then it hears da da da da, and then it hears pima, then that sounds like trouble. I would think the brain would get confused--it wants to make a "da da da da ", and it has two seperate ways to do it. I could see that in this case it would be easy for the brain to get rewired, with disastrous consequences.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 21 2005 18:05:56

Jamey

Posts: 187
Joined: Jul. 7 2004
From: Winnipeg, Canada

RE: focal dystonia speculation (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

The brain doesn't really work that way. You will learn both patterns but the one which you have either learned first or the one you do most often is the one that will become more of a physical memory. Any confusion between patterns will be more likely due to confusion in your attention to the task (I.E. you think too much about it immediately prior to playing that sequence and are undecided as to which pattern to use when called upon to do so). Each pattern is very different from one another and despite you "hearing" the music as a method of playing, your brain and body will still treat them as very different patterns of movement and you will likely revert to the one most practiced for the longer period of time.

- Jamey
(the developmental psychology major)

;-)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 21 2005 18:37:24

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: focal dystonia speculation (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Miguel de Maria
I could see that in this case it would be easy for the brain to get rewired, with disastrous consequences.

Thats not quite how it works with focal dystonia. What you hear is not the issue.
In fact, practicing different things - different patterns of arpegio, different pairs of fingers in alternation etc, is a GOOD thing.

The dangers of focal dystonia lie in overdoing fast repetitions of one pattern so that the brain eventually 'rewires' and cannot distinguish between the individual movements in that pattern (which has disastrous repercussions for control as a whole).

A good example might be the flamenco trill - IAMI, played of course in the tremolo but as a kind of ornament in Solea and so on. You know how it feels to played that? The fingers work as a unit, yes? Its like a compound stroke.

Basically, if you sat there for hours, practicing that fast trill over and over, and did this as a major part of your practice routine, you'd be asking for trouble. What starts out as a nice brain map in the cerebral cortex with the fingers individually represented, gradually overtime becomes smeared as the areas move closer together and then overlap. Eventually, the brain cannot fully distinguish which finger joint is which -you try and move one and the other finger moves, and so on.

Jon

(also BSC(Hons) Psych. ;-)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 24 2005 8:10:14