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Exp Brain Res (2009) 199:117–126

DOI 10.1007/s00221-009-1979-y

R ES EA R C H A R TI CLE

Music performance anxiety in skilled pianists: eVects


of social-evaluative performance situation on subjective,
autonomic, and electromyographic reactions
Michiko Yoshie · Kazutoshi Kudo ·
Takayuki Murakoshi · Tatsuyuki Ohtsuki

Received: 5 June 2009 / Accepted: 5 August 2009 / Published online: 22 August 2009
© Springer-Verlag 2009

Abstract Music performance anxiety (MPA), or stage pianists by disrupting their Wne motor control on stage and
fright in music performance, is a serious problem for many by increasing the risk of playing-related musculoskeletal
musicians, because performance impairment accompanied disorders.
by MPA can threaten their career. The present study sought
to clarify on how a social-evaluative performance situation Keywords Psychological stress · Motor control ·
aVects subjective, autonomic, and motor stress responses in Music performance anxiety · Pianist · Electromyography ·
pianists. Measurements of subjective state anxiety, heart Autonomic nervous system
rate (HR), sweat rate (SR), and electromyographic (EMG)
activity of upper extremity muscles were obtained while 18
skilled pianists performed a solo piano piece(s) of their Introduction
choice under stressful (competition) and non-stressful
(rehearsal) conditions. Participants reported greater anxiety Music performance anxiety (MPA), more commonly
in the competition condition, which conWrmed the eVective- referred to as stage fright, has always been aZicting musi-
ness of stress manipulation. The HR and SR considerably cians all around the world. In a large survey involving
increased from the rehearsal to competition condition 2,212 musicians, MPA was found to be the most frequent
reXecting the activation of sympathetic division of the auto- non-musculoskeletal medical problem among the respon-
nomic nervous system. Furthermore, participants showed dents, with more than 20% using beta-blockers before sig-
higher levels of the EMG magnitude of proximal muscles niWcant public performances (Fishbein et al. 1988). On top
(biceps brachii and upper trapezius) and the co-contraction of its prevalence, MPA can even threaten a musician’s
of antagonistic muscles in the forearm (extensor digitorum career, because an excessive level of MPA sometimes leads
communis and Xexor digitorum superWcialis) in the compe- to actual impairment of performance skills (Yoshie et al.
tition condition. Although these responses can be inter- 2008b, 2009).
preted as integral components of an adaptive biological So far, research has examined the contribution of situa-
system that creates a state of motor readiness in an unstable tional factors to the arousal of MPA (Papageorgi et al.
or unpredictable environment, they can adversely inXuence 2007; Wilson 1997). The Wndings suggested that perfor-
mance circumstances leading to a strong sense of exposure,
including solo against group performance (Cox and
M. Yoshie (&) · K. Kudo · T. Murakoshi · T. Ohtsuki Kenardy 1993), public performance against practice
Department of Life Sciences,
(Fredrikson and Gunnarsson 1992; LeBlanc et al. 1997),
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, and evaluative against non-evaluative performance (Abel
Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan and Larkin 1990; Brotons 1994; Craske and Craig 1984;
e-mail: cc087717@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp Hamann and Sobaje 1983; Yoshie et al. 2008a) are likely to
increase MPA and associated physiological arousal. Thus,
M. Yoshie
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, it seems reasonable to suppose that the combination of
8 Ichibancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8472, Japan these situational factors will induce the greatest levels of

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118 Exp Brain Res (2009) 199:117–126

MPA. Furthermore, these studies normally used an experi- forces applied on a computer mouse (Visser et al. 2004;
mentally devised performing situation where participants’ Wahlström et al. 2002), maximal isometric force produced
performance outcome would never aVect their future career by the wrist and Wnger extensor muscles (Coombes et al.
prospects. In a real musical world, however, every single 2006), pinch grip force (Coombes et al. 2008), and speed of
performance in public can either boost or wreck musicians’ a stroked ball (Matsumoto et al. 2001). Interestingly, our
career, which causes them higher levels of psychological recent experiment (Yoshie et al. 2008a) showed that these
stress. In the present study, therefore, we employed an Wndings hold for a piano-playing task as well. In the exper-
actual piano competition to observe the stress responses of iment, we attempted to manipulate participants’ stress lev-
musicians performing in a realistic environment. els by simply scoring their arpeggio performance in a
Some of the previous MPA studies (Abel and Larkin laboratory setting, and the resulting increase in state anxiety
1990; Brotons 1994; Craske and Craig 1984; Fredrikson coincided with elevated EMG activity in the upper extrem-
and Gunnarsson 1992; LeBlanc et al. 1997) have eVectively ity muscles and stronger keystroke force. Because striking
demonstrated the changes in physiological arousal in stress- the keys with appropriate force levels is a fundamental skill
ful performances mostly through the measurements of heart for pianists, increased muscle activity stemming from over-
rate (HR). However, the relationship between physiological all activation of the motor system might account for the loss
arousal and performance has been seen as equivocal of Wne motor control in stressful performance situations. In
(Yoshie et al. 2009), with a variety of predictions ranging the present study, we examined whether such EMG activa-
from the inverted-U hypothesis (Yerkes and Dodson 1908), tion is observed also during performances of classical piano
zones of optimal functioning (ZOF) model (Hanin 1978; works in a real competition. We hypothesized that partici-
Yoshie et al. 2008b) to catastrophe theory (Hardy and Par- pants would respond to the social-evaluative stressor with
Wtt 1991). To better understand the eVects of MPA on per- higher muscle activity and less muscle relaxation.
formance quality, it would be highly beneWcial to examine Psychological stress can aVect not only levels of EMG
the motor process mediating the arousal–performance rela- activity, but also its coordination patterns. Research has
tionship. indicated that stress or anxiety increases the co-contraction
Recent studies have accumulated evidence indicating levels of antagonistic muscles in the upper extremity
that the induction of psychological stress or negative emo- (Meulenbroek et al. 2005; van Galen et al. 2002; Weinberg
tions leads to activation of the motor system. Using a func- and Hunt 1976). Normally, the levels of co-contraction and
tional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Butler et al. joint stiVness become lower as motor learning proceeds and
(2007) showed elevated activation of dorsal basal ganglia the contribution of feedforward component increases (Fujii
in response to an experimentally induced state of conscious et al. 2009a, b; Furuya and Kinoshita 2008; Osu et al.
fear. Transcranial magnetic stimulation studies (Baumgart- 2002). When put under psychological stress, however, the
ner et al. 2007; Hajcak et al. 2007; Schutter et al. 2008) CNS may be required to heighten joint stiVness through co-
have also demonstrated enhanced motor-evoked potentials contraction to maintain movement accuracy in the face of
during the presentation of fearful or unpleasant emotional deteriorated signal-to-noise ratio in the motor system
stimuli indicating increased corticospinal motor tract excit- (Gribble et al. 2003; van Galen et al. 2002; van Gemmert and
ability associated with negative emotions. These phenom- van Galen 1997). In this regard, increased co-contraction
ena may be understood as representing a state of motor levels under stress may be interpreted as a strategic means
readiness to facilitate defensive behaviors under a potential to adapt muscle activity to central information processing
threat to survival, which has traditionally been known as demands at the expense of physiological eYciency. Based
the Wght-or-Xight response (Cannon 1915). on these Wndings, we hypothesized that the co-contraction
These Wndings have also been conWrmed in experiments level of antagonistic muscles in the forearm would also be
combining electromyography (EMG) with simple motor higher in pianists executing over-learned movements under
tasks. Such studies consistently reported increased EMG intense social-evaluative stress.
activity in the upper extremity muscles associated with cog-
nitive or emotional stress using a wide range of tasks such
as Wnger tapping (Bloemsaat et al. 2005), Wnger elevation Methods
(Finsen et al. 2001), computer work (van Galen et al. 2002;
Visser et al. 2004; Wahlström et al. 2002, 2003), hand and Participants
shoulder exertions (Au and Keir 2007), and ball stroking
(Matsumoto et al. 2001). Predictably, elevated muscle We recruited pianists for participation in the competition
activity under stress has often been accompanied by greater experiment by distributing application forms and informa-
force production, as reXected in the increases of isometric tional brochures describing qualiWcation requirements to
key-pressing force (Bloemsaat et al. 2005), grip- and click- potential applicants at music schools and piano clubs.

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Exp Brain Res (2009) 199:117–126 119

Eventually, 18 highly trained pianists (7 men and 11 with four items concerning technical aspects (i.e., accuracy,
women, mean age § SD = 26.7 § 6.3 years) with a mean technical dexterity, tempo and rhythm, and memory) and
of 20.4 (SD = 6.2) years of playing experience participated six items concerning artistic aspects (i.e., artistry, interpre-
in the experiment. Written informed consent was obtained tation, expressiveness, structural strength, melodic and har-
from all the participants, and the study was approved by the monic balance, and tone quality). The scale ranged from 1
Ethics Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and (poor) to 10 (excellent), leading to the total score ranging
Sciences, the University of Tokyo. from 10 to 100. To examine the inter- and intra-rater reli-
ability of performance evaluation scores, we computed
Experimental task and conditions intraclass correlation coeYcients (ICC) for the rankings of
total scores. The performance scores demonstrated substan-
We asked participants to perform a solo piano piece(s) of tial levels of inter-rater reliability, with ICC (2, 5) of 0.80
their choice requiring considerable playing skills, such as and 0.85 (Ps < 0.001) for the rehearsal and competition
piano sonatas of Beethoven, ProkoWev, and Rachmaninov. conditions, respectively. To conWrm that the jury was capa-
Participants played the whole piece(s) or the Wrst part of the ble of consistently evaluating recorded performances and
piece (mean duration § SD = 6.5 § 1.4 min) from memory live performances, we asked three members of the jury to
on an acoustic grand piano. rate recorded performances of the competition condition
Participants attended two sessions on two separate days: once again well after the experiment. Then, we computed
the rehearsal and competition. In both conditions, we ICC (1, 1) for each judge using his/her score rankings
instructed participants not to drink caVeinated or alcoholic determined for recorded and live performances of the com-
beverages within 24 h before their performance. In the petition condition. The ICC (1, 1) for the three judges were
rehearsal condition, each participant individually visited a 0.77, 0.76, and 0.70 (Ps < 0.001) showing suYcient levels
small music practice room, and played the piece(s) on a of intra-rater reliability. Thus, we used the total scores that
Yamaha C3 grand piano (Yamaha, Hamamatsu, Japan) were averaged across the judges to compare performance
with no experimenter present in the room. In the competi- quality in the competition condition with that in the
tion condition, we held an actual piano competition in a rehearsal condition. We also calculated the mean scores of
concert hall, and participants performed the piece(s) on a the technical and artistic items separately (technical and
Steinway D-274 full concert grand piano (Steinway & artistic scores).
Sons, NY, USA) in front of a large audience
(N = 45.6 § 3.3) and Wve professional judges (four profes- Self-reported measure
sional concert pianists and a musicologist). After each per-
formance, the performer received warm applause from the The level of state anxiety was assessed just prior to each
audience. In the awarding ceremony following the competi- participant’s performance with the visual analog mood
tion, a judge gave the certiWcates of commendation and scale (VAS), which is capable of measuring emotional
cash rewards of 20,000, 10,000, and 5,000 JPY (»200, 100, states in a quick, reliable, and relatively sensitive manner
and 50 USD) to the recipients of the Wrst, second, and third (Cella and Perry 1986). The VAS is a 100-mm continuous
prize, respectively. In both the practice room and concert scale ranging from 0 (not anxious at all, the left end) to 100
hall, temperature and humidity were carefully controlled. (extremely anxious, the right end). We asked participants to
place a vertical line bisecting the 100-mm line to indicate
Data acquisition and analysis the perceived level of anxiety at the moment. The VAS data
were quantiWed by measuring the distance between the left
Performance measures end and the vertical line (mm).

In both conditions, participants’ performances were digi- Autonomic measures


tally recorded at 44.1 kHz with two microphones, which
were placed above the piano and connected to a handy Beat-to-beat HR was monitored continuously throughout
audio recorder H4 (Zoom, Tokyo, Japan). The total dura- experimental sessions using a wireless signal transmission
tion of each performance was calculated based on the audio device with electrocardiogram precision (Polar S810i by
recordings. With respect to the rehearsal condition, the Wve Polar Electro Oy, Kempele, Finland) at a sampling rate of
judges evaluated the recorded performances. In the compe- 1,000 Hz. The receiver unit of the HR monitor, which
tition condition, participants were rendered invisible to the resembled a large wrist watch, was hung from an adjustable
judges so that visual information would not aVect their belt worn round the waist in order not to disturb the per-
evaluation, and the jury directly evaluated participants’ live forming pianists. The consecutive inter-beat (RR) intervals
performances. The jury scored performances on ten items, were automatically stored on the receiver. The RR data

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120 Exp Brain Res (2009) 199:117–126

were carefully edited by visual inspection and elimination were high-pass Wltered at 20 Hz, full-wave rectiWed, and
of measurement artifacts. We computed the mean HR low-pass Wltered at 50 Hz. Subsequently, baseline noise
(bpm) during performance (i.e., from the onset of the Wrst (i.e., mean resting EMG amplitude of pre- and post-perfor-
note to the end of last note) based on the corrected data. mance phases) was removed from the signals according to
During each piano performance, we also gauged the Kudo and Ohtsuki (1998).
amount of sweat evaporated from the sole of the left foot To normalize these EMG data for each muscle for each
with a sweat rate (SR) meter (TS100 by Techno Science, participant, maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) data
Tokyo, Japan) utilizing the ventilated capsule technique. were obtained by asking participants to perform maximal
The SR data were sampled at 1,000 Hz with an MP150 data isometric force production (5 s) after their piano perfor-
acquisition system (Biopac Systems, Inc., CA, USA) inter- mance in each condition. Participants were verbally encour-
faced with a personal computer. We calculated the mean aged to achieve maximal force at designated joint angles.
SR amplitude (mg/min/cm2) for each condition. Figure 1a, During MVC tasks for the ED and FD muscles, the wrist
b shows the typical examples of HR and SR time series, joint was kept at 180°, and for the BB muscle, the elbow
respectively. joint was kept at 90°. In these trials, an assisting person
applied the highest possible load to help participants pro-
EMG measures duce maximal Xexion or extension force. As for the TR
muscle, we adopted the sustained shoulder shrug as the
During each piano performance, surface EMG activity was MVC task. An MVC value was determined as the highest
recorded from the left extensor digitorum communis (ED), mean EMG amplitude observed during the MVC task,
Xexor digitorum superWcialis (FD), biceps brachii (BB), which was obtained with a 300 (for the TR muscle) or
and upper trapezius (TR) muscles. Bipolar Ag/AgCl dis- 1,000 ms (for the other three muscles) window moving in
posable electrodes (10 mm diameter) were placed at the steps of 1 ms. EMG signals recorded during performance
estimated motor point of each target muscle with a 20-mm were normalized relative to these MVC values (Fig. 2a).
center-to-center distance. At each electrode position, the Prior to EMG analyses, we selected appropriate EMG
skin was cleaned using alcohol to reduce skin resistance. data by applying systematic criteria. We Wrst performed the
During EMG recording, special care was taken to prevent Smirnov–Grubbs tests (P < 0.05, with Bonferroni correc-
the connecting cables from disturbing the performing pia- tion) on the percent changes in the mean resting EMG
nist. The EMG signals were ampliWed 500 times and sam- amplitude from the pre- to post-performance phase to
pled at 1,000 Hz together with SR using the MP150 system. exclude EMG data with substantial changes in baseline
EMG signals were Wrst notch Wltered to remove the 50 Hz noise level (probably due to the detachment of electrodes).
(local power line frequency) interference. Then, the signals In the same way, we excluded EMG data with substantial
changes in the MVC values from the rehearsal to competi-
tion condition. The selection process required us to exclude
Rehearsal Competition
the EMG data of three participants for the TR muscle and
a: HR the data of two participants for the other three muscles.
160
The EMG magnitude was quantiWed by computing the
mean EMG amplitude (%MVC) during performance. We
bpm

120
also examined the frequency distribution of EMG signals to
evaluate the level of muscle relaxation. Figure 2b shows
80
examples of the relative frequencies that are cumulatively
b: SR 0.4
plotted as a function of the EMG activity level (%MVC).
Here, the relative frequency at a given EMG activity level
mg/min/cm 2

indicates the relative duration in which EMG activity was


0.2 below the threshold level [muscle relaxation ratio (MRR),
in % total performance duration]. Because approximately
90% of the data points fell below 50% MVC for all the
0
muscles, we examined the MRRs at the thresholds ranging
1 min
from 5 to 50 with intervals of 5% MVC.
Fig. 1 Typical examples of heart rate (HR, a) and sweat rate (SR, b) In addition, we estimated the co-contraction level of
data. The graphs show the time series obtained during the Wrst 5 min antagonistic muscles in the forearm (i.e., ED and FD mus-
of a participant’s performance (Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F
cles) based on the relative diVerence signals (RDS) as pro-
minor, Op. 57, 1st Mov.). The left column shows the data recorded in
the rehearsal condition and the right column in the competition condi- posed by Heuer (2007). The rectiWed and low-pass Wltered
tion (6 Hz) EMG signals were scaled to a mean of 1, and for

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Exp Brain Res (2009) 199:117–126 121

Rehearsal Competition According to Fujii et al. (2009b), we evaluated the co-con-


a traction level by calculating the standard deviation (SD) of
10
RDS for each piano performance [reciprocal contraction

mV
Snd 0
-10 index (RCI)]. A higher RCI value indicated the stronger
tendency toward reciprocal activity, whereas a lower RCI
40

%MVC
ED 20
value indicated the stronger tendency toward co-contrac-
0 tion of the antagonistic muscles.
80

%MVC
FD 40
Statistical analysis
0
60

%MVC
BB We conducted paired t tests to examine the signiWcance of
0 diVerences in the total performance score, scores for each
60 performance evaluation item, VAS score, autonomic mea-

%MVC
TR
sures, and RCI between the rehearsal and competition con-
0
100 ms ditions. Because the data of mean EMG amplitudes did not
b fulWll the prerequisite for the application of parametric
analyses (i.e., normal distribution), Wilcoxon-matched
Relative Frequency (%)

100 pairs signed-rank tests were used to determine the signiW-


80 cance of the diVerences between conditions. As for the two
60
performance subscores, we Wrst applied an one-way multi-
40
variate ANOVA (MANOVA) to examine the eVect of con-
20
dition, and then conducted paired t tests for the technical
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50 and artistic scores separately. Regarding the MRR data, we
EMG Activity Level (%MVC) Wrst conducted a repeated-measures MANOVA with two
c repeated factors: condition (2 levels: rehearsal and competi-
50 tion) and threshold (10 levels: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40,
mV

Snd 0
-50 45, and 50% MVC). Then multiple two-way ANOVAs
were further performed on the MRR data of each muscle.
When the condition £ threshold interaction eVect was
n.u.

2
ED
0 found to be signiWcant, we conducted one-way ANOVAs
4 separately for each of the 10 levels of threshold to deter-
n.u.

FD 2 mine the simple main eVect of condition. P value of <0.05


0
was regarded as statistically signiWcant.
1
n.u.

RDS 0
-1
100 ms
Results
Fig. 2 Typical examples of electromyographic (EMG) data. The left
column shows the data recorded in the rehearsal condition and the right Performance quality
column in the competition condition. The ED, FD, BB, and TR indicate
the extensor digitorum communis, Xexor digitorum superWcialis, biceps
brachii, and upper trapezius muscles, respectively. a RectiWed and Table 1 shows the mean scores for each performance evalu-
smoothed EMG signals synchronized with sound data (Snd). The graphs ation item in each condition. The stressful social-evaluative
show the time series obtained during the Wrst 1,000 ms of a participant’s situation led to impaired performance quality. The total per-
performance (Messiaen: 8 Preludes pour Piano No.8 “Un ReXet dans
le Vent”). b Histograms of EMG signals with cumulative frequency
formance score signiWcantly decreased from the rehearsal
curves. The histograms were produced based on the EMG signals to competition condition [t(17) = 3.86, P < 0.01, Fig. 3a].
recorded from the BB muscle while a participant was playing Liszt’s The MANOVA performed on the data of technical and
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor. c Relative diVerence sig- artistic scores revealed a signiWcant main eVect of condi-
nals (RDS) for antagonistic muscles in the forearm. The graphs show the
time series obtained during the Wrst 2,000 ms of a participant’s perfor-
tion (Wilks’ lambda = 0.485, P < 0.01). The following
mance (ProkoWev: Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 1). The second paired t tests showed that both the technical and artistic
and third rows of graphs show the scaled (mean = 1) EMG signals of the scores were signiWcantly lower in the competition condition
ED and FD muscles, respectively. The bottom row shows the RDS than in the rehearsal condition [technical: t(17) = 2.19,
each point in time the relative diVerence (E ¡ F)/(E + F) P < 0.05; artistic: t(17) = 4.25, P < 0.01, Fig. 3b]. Although
was computed, where E and F denote the scaled EMG val- the diVerence in total performance duration between the
ues of the ED and FD muscles, respectively (Fig. 2c). conditions was statistically non-signiWcant (Wilcoxon

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122 Exp Brain Res (2009) 199:117–126

Table 1 Mean scores (SDs) for


Subcategory Item Rehearsal Competition P*
each performance evaluation
item Technical Accuracy 6.4 (1.4) 6.1 (2.0) n.s.
Technical dexterity 6.4 (1.4) 5.9 (1.8) <0.10
Tempo and rhythm 6.4 (1.3) 5.9 (1.4) <0.05
Memory 7.5 (1.3) 6.9 (1.8) n.s.
Artistic Artistry 6.5 (1.5) 5.7 (1.8) <0.01
Interpretation 6.5 (1.5) 5.9 (1.6) <0.05
Expressiveness 6.4 (1.2) 5.8 (1.5) <0.05
Structural strength 6.5 (1.3) 6.0 (1.6) <0.05
Melodic and harmonic balance 6.8 (1.2) 5.6 (1.7) <0.001
*SigniWcance of the diVerence
between conditions Tone quality 6.5 (1.2) 5.5 (1.7) <0.01

Z = 1.02, P = 0.31), the duration was shorter in the compe- Autonomic arousal
tition condition than in the rehearsal condition in 12 out of
18 participants indicating that performing tempo tended to The psychological stress had remarkable eVects on auto-
increase in the competition condition. nomic arousal (Table 2). The mean HR during piano per-
formance increased by a mean of 34.2 bpm from the
Subjective state anxiety rehearsal to competition condition [t(17) = 9.47,
P < 0.001]. The mean SR was also signiWcantly greater in
The pre-performance VAS data showed that participants the competition condition [t(17) = 3.40, P < 0.01].
reported a signiWcantly higher level of state anxiety in the
competition condition than in the rehearsal condition
Muscular activity
[t(17) = 2.87, P < 0.05] conWrming the eVectiveness of
stress manipulation (Table 2).
We Wrst compared the mean EMG amplitude between the
two conditions. The Wilcoxon signed-rank tests demon-
a b Rehearsal
100 10 Competition strated that the mean EMG amplitude signiWcantly
* ** increased from the rehearsal to competition condition for
Mean Performance Score
Total Performance Score

80 ** 8 the BB (Wilcoxon Z = ¡3.10, P < 0.01) and TR (Wilcoxon


60
Z = ¡2.56, P < 0.05) muscles (Fig. 4a), while no signiWcant
6
diVerence was found for the other two muscles.
40 4 Then, we computed the MRRs at 10 selected thresholds
for each muscle for each condition (Fig. 4b). The
20 2
MANOVA for MRR data revealed a signiWcant eVect of
0 0 condition £ threshold interaction (Wilks’ lambda = 0.511,
Total Technical Artistic
P < 0.05). ANOVA for each muscle further revealed that
Fig. 3 Means of performance measures. a Total performance score. only the BB and TR muscles showed the signiWcant interac-
b Technical and artistic scores. Error bars represent between-partici- tion eVects [BB: F(9,135) = 7.41, P < 0.001; TR:
pant SD and asterisks denote the signiWcant diVerences between
F(9,126) = 2.02, P < 0.05] and main eVects of condition
conditions (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01)
[BB: F(1,15) = 6.17, P < 0.05; TR: F(1,14) = 5.63,
Table 2 Means (SDs) of the self-reported anxiety score and auto- P < 0.05]. As the interaction eVect was signiWcant for these
nomic measures muscles, we performed one-way ANOVAs at each thresh-
Rehearsal Competition P* old level to examine the simple main eVect of condition.
The ANOVAs performed on the MRR data of BB muscle
VASa score (mm) 44.4 (29.4) 56.1 (29.1) <0.05 showed that the MRRs at the thresholds of 5, 10, and 15%
b
Mean HR (bpm) 112.4 (23.6) 146.6 (19.2) <0.001 MVC were signiWcantly lower in the competition than in
Mean SRc 0.2295 (0.1540) 0.3195 (0.1245) <0.01 the rehearsal condition (Ps < 0.05). The MRRs of TR mus-
(mg/min/cm2)
cle revealed a similar tendency, although the signiWcant
*SigniWcance of the diVerence between conditions diVerences were found at slightly higher threshold levels,
a
Visual analog mood scale speciWcally at 15–50% MVC (Ps < 0.05).
b
Heart rate Finally, we computed the RCI for the ED and FD mus-
c
Sweat rate cles to examine their co-contraction level. As shown in

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Exp Brain Res (2009) 199:117–126 123

a 0.5
Rehearsal
50 Rehearsal Competition
Competition
* **
Mean EMG Amplitude (%MVC)

0.4
40

RCI
30 ** 0.3

20

10 Fig. 5 Means of reciprocal contraction index (RCI). Error bars


represent between-participant SD and asterisks denote the signiWcant
diVerence between conditions (**P < 0.01)
0
ED FD BB TR
musicians concern about performance impairment caused
b ED FD by MPA, only a few studies have directly compared musi-
100
cians’ performance quality in a stressful condition with that
80
in a non-stressful condition. Most of such studies failed to
60 Wnd any signiWcant diVerences in performance quality
MRR (%Performance Duration)

40 between evaluative and non-evaluative conditions (Craske


20 and Craig 1984; Yoshie et al. 2008a), and one study even
0 reported an improvement in performance quality from the
BB TR
non-jury to jury condition (Hamann and Sobaje 1983).
100 These inconsistent Wndings may partly be attributed to the
80 diVerences in the induced stress levels. All of the three
* * * major theories concerning the arousal- or anxiety–perfor-
60 * * *
* mance relationship, i.e., inverted-U hypothesis (Yerkes and
40 ** *
* Dodson 1908), ZOF model (Hanin 1978; Yoshie et al.
20 * Rehearsal 2008b), and catastrophe theory (Hardy and ParWtt 1991)
Competition
0 indicate that psychological stress beyond the optimal level
10 20 30 40 50 10 20 30 40 50 leads to performance decrements. Because the present
Threshold (%MVC) experiment employed an audience larger than those used in
Fig. 4 Measures of EMG magnitude. a Box and whisker plots of the previous studies and authoritative judges including two
mean EMG amplitude. The box represents the middle half of data, the world class pianists, the induced stress levels may have
horizontal line in the box is the median, and the whisker is at 1.5 times been high enough to adversely aVect performance quality.
the range of the middle half of data from the ends of the box. b Means
of muscle relaxation ratio (MRR) at the thresholds of 5–50% MVC.
The observed changes in stress responses would explain on
Error bars represent between-participant SD and asterisks denote the how the social-evaluative situation impaired performance
signiWcant diVerences between conditions (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01) quality to such an extent.
The self-reported VAS score indicated that participants
felt more anxious in the competition condition than in the
Fig. 5, the RCI was signiWcantly lower in the competition rehearsal condition. As the only diVerence between the two
condition than in the rehearsal condition [t(13) = 3.55, conditions was the presence or absence of an audience and
P < 0.01]. judges, the increase in subjective anxiety appears to have
resulted from the misdirection of attention to task-irrelevant
social cues. The relative shortage of attention paid to task-
Discussion relevant cues (Wine 1971) might account for the fact that
the decline in performance quality was greater in the artistic
The present experiment placed skilled pianists in a real, when compared with technical aspects, because artistic
competitive, and extremely stressful performance situation expression requires high-order associative functions
to observe the changes in performance quality and in involving the exploitation of real-time auditory feedback
subjective, autonomic, and motor stress responses. We and the broad temporal integration of musical elements.
found that performance quality was considerably impaired Moreover, psychosocial stress has been indicated to disrupt
in the competition condition. Despite the fact that many functional connectivity within a frontoparietal network,

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124 Exp Brain Res (2009) 199:117–126

deterring people from shifting attention (Liston et al. 2009). It would be reasonable to consider that such elevated mus-
Therefore, the diYculty in shifting attention from task- cle activity in the upper extremity has reXected increased
irrelevant- to task-relevant cues may have further aggra- corticospinal motor tract excitability associated with nega-
vated the subjective experience of anxiety in the present tive emotions (Baumgartner et al. 2007; Hajcak et al. 2007;
participants. Schutter et al. 2008). Although the underlying neurobio-
The social-evaluative stressor aVected autonomic logical mechanisms are still unclear, a possible explanation
arousal as well. The HR during performance dramatically would be that a fear-related amygdala excitation induced by
increased from the rehearsal to competition condition, the psychosocial stressor activated neural circuits within
corroborating previous Wndings (Abel and Larkin 1990; the basal ganglia and thalamus that have the capacity to
Brotons 1994; Craske and Craig 1984; Fredrikson and enhance motor cortex excitability (Coombes et al. 2008).
Gunnarsson 1992; LeBlanc et al. 1997; Yoshie et al. Furthermore, the increased TR muscle activity in the com-
2008a). We could also duplicate the increase in SR petition condition is particularly of interest, because previ-
observed in a laboratory experiment (Yoshie et al. 2008a). ous studies have indicated the sensitivity of the TR muscle
The fact that our results showed greater changes in auto- to psychosocial stimuli and the prevalence of shoulder pain
nomic measures than those reported in studies using labora- among workers engaging in jobs characterized by low
tory-induced stress (Finsen et al. 2001; Matsumoto et al. physical load and high psychosocial stress (Lundberg 2002;
2001; Noteboom et al. 2001; Wahlström et al. 2002; Yoshie van Galen et al. 2002; Visser et al. 2004; Wahlström et al.
et al. 2008a) suggests that the actual presence of a large 2002; Wahlström et al. 2003). One plausible interpretation
audience and authoritative judges was an extreme social of these Wndings would be that TR muscle activity is more
stressor for a performing pianist. The present Wndings sug- closely related to autonomic arousal when compared with
gest that the stressful performance situation increased the other muscles. Alternatively, the TR muscle activation
activation of sympathetic division of the autonomic ner- might reXect compensatory motions of the shoulder to deal
vous system (ANS). From an evolutionary perspective, this with impaired manual dexterity under psychological stress.
state is regarded as tuning the ANS to ensure metabolic As for the ED and FD muscles, however, the changing
resources for active contact defenses against attacks from patterns of EMG magnitude varied considerably among
predators or conspeciWcs during the circa-strike stage participants, and no signiWcant group diVerence was
(Fanselow 1994; Lang et al. 1997), and midbrain structures observed between conditions. The results seemingly contra-
including the periaqueductal gray seem to be responsible dict previous studies that demonstrated signiWcant increases
for integrating such fear responses (Mobbs et al. 2007). in the EMG activity of these muscles under psychological
High levels of autonomic arousal, despite being an evolu- stress (Finsen et al. 2001; Visser et al. 2004; Wahlström
tionarily adaptive response in life-threatening situations, et al. 2002; Yoshie et al. 2008a). Importantly, a recent
can have detrimental eVects in music performance because experiment using a repetitive tapping task (Bloemsaat et al.
they not only fatigue musicians, but also alter their tempo- 2005) showed that executive distal upper-limb muscles
ral perception. Boltz (1994) suggested that an increase in (including the ED and FD muscles) were less responsive to
arousal accelerates an individual’s inherent rate of activity cognitive stress than proximal supporting muscles (includ-
called “internal tempo.” This might explain the reason why ing the BB and TR muscles). It is feasible, therefore, to
performing tempo tended to increase in the competition speculate that the eVects of social-evaluative stress on the
condition. Furthermore, among the four performance evalu- forearm muscles were so subtle as to be masked by the
ation items in the technical category, only the score for diVerences in individual coping strategies to minimize per-
tempo and rhythm signiWcantly decreased from the formance decrements. This might explain why the muscu-
rehearsal to competition condition (Table 1). Because loskeletal problems of the shoulder and neck are more
appropriate timing is critical for optimal music perfor- frequent (20–22%) compared with those of hand and fore-
mance, the stress-induced change in temporal perception arm (7–16%) among musicians (Fishbein et al. 1988), since
may have impaired participants’ performances. they are constantly put under competitive pressure.
In line with our hypothesis, the mean EMG amplitude of Despite the absence of any signiWcant changes in EMG
the BB and TR muscles signiWcantly increased, whereas the magnitude, the ED and FD muscles revealed higher levels
MRRs were reduced, from the rehearsal to competition of co-contraction in the competition condition, supporting
condition. The results are consistent with the previous stud- both our hypothesis and previous Wndings (Meulenbroek
ies showing increased EMG activity of the BB and/or TR et al. 2005; van Galen et al. 2002; Weinberg and Hunt
muscles during the execution of various motor tasks under 1976). The co-contraction of antagonistic muscles in the
psychological stress (Au and Keir 2007; Bloemsaat et al. forearm has been suggested to be reduced as musicians
2005; van Galen et al. 2002; Visser et al. 2004; Wahlström acquire expertise in piano performance (Furuya and
et al. 2002; Wahlström et al. 2003; Yoshie et al. 2008a). Kinoshita 2008) or in drumming performance (Fujii et al.

123
Exp Brain Res (2009) 199:117–126 125

2009a, b). Therefore, we could argue that the psychological Acknowledgments This study was supported by the Grant-in-Aid
stress led to a temporary regress to muscle activity patterns for ScientiWc Research (#19300216) of Japan Society for the Promo-
tion of Science (JSPS) awarded to T. Ohtsuki and the Grant-in-Aid for
at an earlier stage of motor learning, which is characterized JSPS Fellows (#2011133) awarded to M. Yoshie. We express our deep
by the freezing of excessive biomechanical degrees of appreciation to Wve judges of the piano competition, namely Ms. Shoko
freedom in an attempt to turn the motor apparatus into a Sugitani, Dr. Hermann Gottschewski, Ms. Ikuko Endo, Mr. Nobumichi
controllable state (Bernstein 1967; Pijpers et al. 2003). Koyanagi, and Ms. Eriko Kanazawa, and to the staV and contestants of
the competition.
Heightening joint stiVness through co-contraction is gener-
ally seen as one of the strategies to low-pass Wlter neuromo-
tor signals in the face of deteriorated signal-to-noise ratio in
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