This study investigated the differences of anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) in a one-leg stance (OLS) that appear according to lower-extremity dominance and dual-task interference. Thirteen young, healthy, male volunteers performed the OLS task under the following six conditions: (1) dominant leg (DL), single-task; (2) DL, dual-task, with a low level of cognitive load (DT1/2); (3) DL, dual-task, with a high level of cognitive load (DT + 1); (4) non-dominant leg (NDL), single-task; (5) NDL, DT1/2; and (6) NDL, DT + 1. In order to measure the subjects’ APA, we used the medial–lateral displacement of their centers of pressure and gravity from the force plate and the time-series data of joint angular motions, recorded using a 3D motion analysis system. In the NDL under the dual-task condition, the onset of APA was delayed and the amplitude declined, which resulted in an increase in the duration of the APA period. The number of components identified by principal component analysis differed according to the dominant foot, and the change caused by cognitive load was found only in the NDL. As the cognitive load increased, the variance of the principal component decreased. These findings show that dual-task interference asymmetrically influences APA according to limb dominance, which reorganizes the coordination strategy of joints’ angular motion.

Our primary purpose in this study was to determine whether trained dancers differed from untrained non-dancers in their ability to accurately control motor timing during finger and heel tapping tasks, both with and without slow isochronous auditory stimuli. Dancers and non-dancers were instructed to synchronize their taps with isochronous auditory stimuli under three conditions: 30, 40, and 50 BPM. After the synchronization phase, participants were asked to continue tapping without the auditory sequences. On the synchronization task, the tapping onset of both groups lagged behind the stimulus onset in all tempo conditions. In all conditions, dancers showed more accurate and stable beat synchronization and continuation than non-dancers. As the tempo condition slowed down (from 50 to 30 BPM), synchronization accuracy decreased while synchronization and continuation variability increased. Unlike for novices, dancers showed no difference between the finger and heel tapping synchronization tasks. During the continuous tasks, their timing accuracy was higher for heel than for finger tapping. Collectively, these findings suggest that dance training, which involves synchronizing bodily movements based on rhythm, may lead to an accumulation of experience that enhances specific sensorimotor skills related to synchronizing movements with external stimuli or continuing rhythmic movements temporally.

Background: Accurate motor timing requires the coordinated control of actions in response to external stimuli. Over the past few years, several studies have investigated the effect of sensory input on motor timing; however, the evidence remains conflicting. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of sensory modality and tempo on the accuracy of timed movements and explore strategies for enhancing motor timing.Methods: Participants (n = 30) performed synchronization and adaptation circle drawing tasks in virtual reality. In Experiment 1, participants synchronized circle drawing with repeated stimuli based on sensory modalities (auditory, visual, tactile, audio-visual, audio-tactile, and visual-tactile) and tempos (20, 30, and 60 bpm). In Experiment 2, we examined timing adaptation in circle drawing tasks under conditions of unexpected tempo changes, whether increased or decreased.Results: A significant interaction effect between modality and tempo was observed in the comparison of timing accuracy. Tactile stimuli exhibited significantly higher timing accuracy at 60 bpm, whereas auditory stimuli demonstrated a peak accuracy at 30 bpm. The analysis revealed a significantly larger timing error when adapting to changes in the tempo-down condition compared with the tempo-up condition.Discussion: Through Experiment 1, we found that sensory modality impacts motor timing differently depending on the tempo, with tactile modality being effective at a faster tempo and auditory modality being beneficial at a moderate tempo. Additionally, Experiment 2 revealed that adapting to changes by correcting timing errors is more challenging with decreasing tempo than with increasing tempo. Our findings suggest that motor timing is intricately influenced by sensory modality and tempo variation. Therefore, to enhance the motor timing, a comprehensive understanding of these factors and their applications is imperative.

Background: Observational learning plays a crucial role in the acquisition of complex motor skills such as dance, where learners observe expert demonstrations and transform perceptual information into coordinated motor execution. This process depends on how visual attention is allocated during observation, yet the role of gaze behavior in perception-action coupling during structured dance learning remains poorly understood. Purpose: This study examined how differences in expertise are reflected in gaze behavior during structured observational learning, and how these gaze patterns relate to the quality of movement reproduction in dance. Research Design: A mixed experimental design was employed, combining a between-group comparison of expert and novice dancers with a within-subject manipulation of repeated observation, followed by a movement reproduction phase. Study Sample: Twenty-six female participants took part in the study, including 11 expert dancers with over five years of formal training and 15 novice dancers with less than one year of dance experience. Data Collection and Analysis: Gaze behavior was recorded using mobile eye-tracking during twenty times repeated observations of choreographed dance sequence, and movement reproduction quality was assessed through expert-rated performance measures, with gaze and performance data analysed using repeated-measures ANOVAs and group comparisons. Results: Expert dancers exhibited longer fixation durations and fewer fixations. They also demonstrated larger saccadic amplitudes compared to novices, with greater visual focus on movement-relevant regions such as the shoulders, pelvis, thighs, and knees. Expert dancers received higher scores in both completeness and expert rating. Conclusions: Expertise-related differences were associated with more efficient and selective visual attention during observation, supporting perceptual–motor integration and accurate movement execution. By demonstrating how gaze behavior mediates the transformation of perceptual input into motor output, this study advances understanding of perception–action coupling in dance learning. These insights may inform the design of gaze-based feedback tools and adaptive training in physical or digital dance instruction.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of skill level and tempo on coordination variability during consecutive ballet jumps (i.e., temps levé sauté ) using continuous relative phase analysis. Eight skilled and eight less-skilled dancers performed the temps levé sauté jumps in first position (a fundamental foot position in ballet, one of the five basic positions in which the heels are together and the toes point outward) at three different tempos: 80 bpm, 100 bpm, and 120 bpm. Hip-knee and knee-ankle coordination was evaluated across three movement sub-phases: propulsion, flight, and landing. Phase deviations were used to quantify inter-joint variability, with larger deviation values indicating greater variability in the relationship between the two joints. The results showed that, during the landing phase, a significant interaction effect between skill level and tempo was observed in hip-knee coordination. Skilled dancers exhibited significantly lower variability in hip-knee coordination during the landing phase. Additionally, both groups showed increased variability at the slowest tempo (i.e., 80 bpm) when compared to the other tempos during the propulsion and landing phases. In the flight phase, however, coordination variability increased with faster tempo. These findings highlight the importance of tailored training strategies based on skill level to enhance ballet jump performance, with more emphasis on developing phase-specific coordination control and adaptability across various tempo conditions.