Introduction: The common musicians’ playing-related pain and injury are musculoskeletal disorders (e.g., tendonitis, tenosynovitis), nerve-related symptoms (e.g., carpal tunnel, thoracic outlet syndrome), performance anxiety, and task-specific focal dystonia (TSFD), the latter of which is the least understood by the performing artists and healthcare professionals. Neurophysiological evidence has demonstrated that extensive skills training and excessive practice can yield maladaptive changes in certain neural networks, leading to task-specific focal dystonia. We encountered four musicians affected by task-specific focal dystonia among skilled musician samples in our hand biomechanics study (N = 31) and School of Music-sponsored Musician Triage (N = 6). Mindfulness mental training with ergonomic pedagogy has shown promise in modifying neurological behavior patterns. In this chapter, we document the progressive effects of mindfulness mental training and mind-body integrative pedagogy in rehabilitating two dystonic musicians. Their subjective lived experience and the interactive observations by triage clinicians and researcher/pedagogue are structured by adopting Varela’s neurophenomenological narrative and creating intersubjective and communal validation. Approach: Triage examination included a thorough music background and injury history. Coaching sessions consisted of deep breathing, in-the-moment focus, anatomical and proprioceptive awareness, and slow deliberate playing using the ergonomic finger-walk/weight transfer technique. Results: Musicians showed progress in restoring their playing after a few sessions. Implication: Our experience of almost fully restored playing in a few sessions is impressive but likely unsustainable. Sustained and permanent behavioral change would require an extended period of second-person neurophenomenological retraining to implement lasting awareness, proprioception, and mind-body behavior patterns. A third-person method using an external feedback device, called Sensorimotor Integrator, that interacts with muscle-brain activity can strengthen long-term neurophenomenological change. Our phenomenological process evidenced in this report could benefit healthy musicians’ pre-professional collegiate preventive education in the current environment where music curricula are quantity-driven with little attention to proprioceptive qualitative awareness and refined tone production. (292)

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Neurophenomenology in Retraining Musicians with Task-Specific Focal Dystonia: Two Cases

  • Sang-Hie Lee,
  • Juan Sanchez-Ramos,
  • Nancy Burns,
  • Saida Omarova,
  • Stephanie Carey

摘要

Introduction: The common musicians’ playing-related pain and injury are musculoskeletal disorders (e.g., tendonitis, tenosynovitis), nerve-related symptoms (e.g., carpal tunnel, thoracic outlet syndrome), performance anxiety, and task-specific focal dystonia (TSFD), the latter of which is the least understood by the performing artists and healthcare professionals. Neurophysiological evidence has demonstrated that extensive skills training and excessive practice can yield maladaptive changes in certain neural networks, leading to task-specific focal dystonia. We encountered four musicians affected by task-specific focal dystonia among skilled musician samples in our hand biomechanics study (N = 31) and School of Music-sponsored Musician Triage (N = 6). Mindfulness mental training with ergonomic pedagogy has shown promise in modifying neurological behavior patterns. In this chapter, we document the progressive effects of mindfulness mental training and mind-body integrative pedagogy in rehabilitating two dystonic musicians. Their subjective lived experience and the interactive observations by triage clinicians and researcher/pedagogue are structured by adopting Varela’s neurophenomenological narrative and creating intersubjective and communal validation. Approach: Triage examination included a thorough music background and injury history. Coaching sessions consisted of deep breathing, in-the-moment focus, anatomical and proprioceptive awareness, and slow deliberate playing using the ergonomic finger-walk/weight transfer technique. Results: Musicians showed progress in restoring their playing after a few sessions. Implication: Our experience of almost fully restored playing in a few sessions is impressive but likely unsustainable. Sustained and permanent behavioral change would require an extended period of second-person neurophenomenological retraining to implement lasting awareness, proprioception, and mind-body behavior patterns. A third-person method using an external feedback device, called Sensorimotor Integrator, that interacts with muscle-brain activity can strengthen long-term neurophenomenological change. Our phenomenological process evidenced in this report could benefit healthy musicians’ pre-professional collegiate preventive education in the current environment where music curricula are quantity-driven with little attention to proprioceptive qualitative awareness and refined tone production. (292)