Dance and Brain

Physical activity has manifold positive effects on physical and mental health. Studies at the interface of Sports and Human Movement Science, Neuroscience and Psychology also show that the engagement in physical activity modulates functional and structural characteristics of the brain, along with changes in related cognitive and affective functions. The majority of literature in this domain focuses on physical activity interventions involving cardiovascular exercises. Recently, a growing number of studies investigates physical activity exercises involving visuomotor demands. Particularly dancing has attracted attention in this context, especially as a form of therapy for neurological disorders and mild cognitive impairment. Dancing involves and stimulates a plethora of processes of different domains, but our knowledge of which specific brain mechanisms and related cognitive functions are modulated by this complex physical activity is limited. This project addresses the central research question of whether different types of dancing (classical ballet, contemporary) have different effects on brain mechanisms, psychophysiological (especially heart rate variability as index of autonomous nervous functioning) and psychological functions. The design of this study involves three different time points of assessment and three experimental conditions, which are realized in a between-subjects design: 1) Training in contemporary dancing, 2) training in classical ballet, and 3) a third group of participants will act as waiting control group receiving the intervention after the last assessment session. All participants will be tested at three time points of assessment: Before the intervention, after half-time of the intervention, and after completing the whole intervention. At each time point of assessment, magnetic resonance imaging and electrocardiography will be performed, along with the assessment of motor- and visuomotor measures and psychological functions. This project is embedded in a larger interdisciplinary research field at the University of Graz (involving researchers from Neuroscience, Biological Psychology, Health Psychology, and Sports and Human Movement Sciences) focusing on the manifold effects of physical activity on different facets of physical and mental health. This project is designed to extend previous research by focusing on the relatively new but continuously growing field of dance research. Especially the comparison of different types of dance trainings (contemporary vs. classical ballet) within one and the same design, along with the assessment of different outcome measures (brain functions, cardiac activity, motor, cognitive, and affective functions) at different time points of the interventions provide novel insights of how different forms of dancing shape different indicators of physical and mental health.