Harvard University studies WFD

[WFD Teamster]

Harvard University Releases Medical Study on WFD-World's Fastest Drummer
There's a series of medical studies coming out from Harvard University on WFD see below links

Rise rate and timing variability of surface electromyographic activity
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22063300

Wrist flexor and extensor muscles of the world's fastest drummer.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22414865

Tapping performance and underlying wrist muscle activity
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19409958

[Drumnosis]

Just reading these now. Amazing stuff.

[sfujii]

Hi All,

I am Shinya Fujii, the author of the research papers on the WFD. The study was performed when I was in Japan at Kyoto University and The University of Tokyo. Right now, I am continuing my research on expert drummers at Harvard Medical School in Boston. I am studying how the brains of drummers are different from those of non-drummers. If there are any professional drummers who would like to participate in my study, please contact me (sfujiiATbidmc.harvard.edu). Participation will involve performing some drumming tasks and also undergoing a non-invasive MRI brain scan.

Thanks so much.

Shinya Fujii

[JoeyM]

Shinya, Ive been wanting to do a study like this for a long time, Im currently in talks with Sydney university about a Bio Mechanics study.

My two main questions are ; 1. How fast is the signal being sent by the brain for each stroke at that speed?

2. How fast does the brain react to a mistake and corrects it during a speed run? E.g sticks clashing and the drummer losing control.

Good work and good luck. I wish i was there to be a part of this.

[Drumnosis]

This is really exciting stuff! Shinya do you mind if I tweet about this?

[sfujii]

Hi Joey: Based-on my study, wrist flexor and extensor muscles are alternately activated by the brain about every 50 msec to achieve the world’s fastest performance. On the other hand, non-drummers and normal drummers seemed to activate the wrist muscles alternately about every 75 msec during the maximum-speed drumming performance (for more detail, see my papers). We don’t know yet on how fast the brain reacts to a mistake of the drumming. It might be interesting to see the brain responses using EEG (Electroencephalogram) in future studies.

Hi Drumnosis: I am glad if you could tweet about my study. I am looking for drummers who could participate in my study at Harvard.

Thanks!

Shinya

[Boo]