Welcome to "Musical Dynaformics" lab!
Science and Technology for Musical Expertise & Musicians' Disorders
Our Pipeline circulating Research, Development, Deployment
Musical Dynaformics is a discipline for understanding neurophysiological, biomechanical, and psychological principles governing acquisition, sophistication, loss, and restoration of musical expertise and excellence. The goals of "Musical Dynaformics" are thus both to support for musicians to produce a variety of musical expression and to prevent development of injuries triggered by music practicing (e.g. musician's dystonia). To achieve these two key goals requires elucidating and developing the optimal ways of creating one's desired musical expression, through a cross-disciplinary approach making a synergy between neuroscience, biomechanics, robotics, psychology, cognitive science, informatics, and physiology,
Outcomes of the research and development on Musical Dynaformics are compiled into our physical education program; "PEAC" (Physical Education for Artists Curriculum). This educational package consists of lectures, physical coaching, and technology-based supports for musicians. Both lectures and coaching are based on evidences derived from research and scientific theories, whereas tech-based physical supports make use of our states-of-art sensing & training systems developed by our group and others.
The PEAC program is deployed into our academy program hosted by Sony CSL and others, which is our educational platform for junior pianists. Also, a part of the PEAC program has been and are ready for being provided to music conservatories in different countries.
The details of our pipeline circulating research, development, and deployment are summarized here.
Our Pipeline
Circulating Research, Development, Education
Virtuosity Science
Sensorimotor skills for musical excellence
Optimal Musical Practice
Neural, Biomechanical, & Cognitive Mechanisms
Body-Machine-Computer Interface
probing & Boosting Musicians' expertise
Dark-Side of Music Practice
Pathophysiology &Pathology of musicians' disorders
Neuro-rehabilitation
Rehab. & Retraining for musicians' disorders
Performance Anxiety
Mechanism & Training for Choking Under Pressure of musicians
Research Topics
Extremes of Human Sensory-Motor-Cognitive Skills
”Beyond Virtuosity"
Neuromuscular Skills
MoCap, Data Glove, EMG, Force & position sensors, Robotics, Data science & Machine learning
Optimal Practice
Online & Offline Learning, Transfer, Memory consolidation and interference, Neuroplasticity, Practice regime and scheduling, Supervised/Reinforcement learning, Internal model, Mental rehearsal
Augmented Biofeedback
Bio-/Neuro-feedback, Hand exoskeleton (soft and hard), Multimodal biofeedback, Haptic Interface, VR/AR training
Sensory-Motor Integration
Psychophysics, Sensory assessment, Multimodal integration, EEG, TMS, peripheral nerve stimulation, Perceptual Learning
Injury Prevention & Retraining
Epidemiology, Biomechanics, Intervention, Rehabilitation, Exoskeleton, Haptic device, Machine Learning
Focal Dystonia, Tremor, Chronic Pain
tDCS, TMS, EEG, Machine Learning, Multivariate analysis, Hand exo-skeleton
Our Team
Current member
Yudai
KIMOTO
PhD student (D1) JSPS DC1
Biomechanics & neurophysiology of finger dexterity
Sachiko SHIOTANI
Physical Therapist (PT)
Somatosensory retraining for musicians' dystonia
Alumni
Past members (grad students from Sophia University)
Ryuya TANIBUCHI
Bachelor & Master (2016~2019)
Robotics-based training for musicians
Mizuha SAKURADA
Bachelor & Master (2016~2019)
Optimal practice for acquiring musical virtuosity
Tomohiro
SAITO
Bachelor & Master (2016~2019)
Human interface for musicians
Yuta
FURUKAWA
Bachelor & Master, JSPS DC1 (2015~2019)
Metaplasticity of auditory-motor system in musicians
Shuntaro
KOTANI
Bachelor & Master (2015~2018)
Hand motor control under mental pressure
Moe HOSODA
Bachelor & Master (2015~2018)
Sensory-motor coupling in musicians
Shogo KUWABARA
Bachelor (2016~2017)
Exoskeleton for hand motor training
Hiroshi
MATSUI
Bachelor (2016~2017)
Online visuomotor coordination in musical performance
Sayuri
YOKOTA
Bachelor (2015~2016)
Impacts of variable practice on muscular synergy in musical performance
Ami
SHIMIZU
Bachelor (2015~2016)
Hand synergy in musician's dystonia
Mamoru
TAYA
Bachelor (2014~2016)
Development of piano-embedded sensors
You
MURATA
Bachelor (2014~2015)
Identification of musician's dystonia using deep neural network and random forest
Hiroshi MATSUBAYASHI
Bachelor (2014~2015)
Machine learning approach for characterizing musician's dystonia
Publication List
Complete list is here
International Journal Articles (peer-reviewed)
*: equally-contributed co-first authors
Shinichi Furuya, Reiko Ishimaru, Takanori Oku, Noriko Nagata.: Back to feedback: aberrant sensorimotor control in music performance under pressure. (under review)
Masato Hirano, Shinichi Furuya.: Non-uniform multimodal interactions of auditory and somatosensory information in expert musicians. (under review)
Yudai Kimoto, Masato Hirano, Shinichi Furuya.: Adaptation of the corticomuscular and biomechanical systems of musicians. (in revision)
Kahori Kita, Shinichi Furuya, Rieko Osu, Takashi Sakamoto, Takashi Hanakawa.: Aberrant cerebello-cortical connectivity in pianists with focal task-specific dystonia. (in revision)
Shinichi Furuya*, Reiko Ishimaru*, Noriko Nagata.: Factors of choking under pressure in musicians. PLoS One, 16(1): e0244082, 2021
Masato Hirano, Muzuha Sakurada, Shinichi Furuya.: Overcoming the ceiling effects of experts’ motor expertise through somatosensory training. Science Advances 6(47): eabd2558, 2020 (press-release)
Nobuhiro Takahashi, Shinichi Furuya, Hideki Koike.: Soft exoskeleton glove with human anatomical architecture: production of dexterous finger movements and skillful piano performance. IEEE Transaction on Haptics 13(49) 679-690, 2020
Shinichi Furuya, Takanori Oku, Yudai Kimoto, Hayato Nishioka, Masato Hirano.: Skillful and pathological movement coordination in musical performance. Advances in Exercise & Sports Physiology 26(2) 23-26, 2020
Shinichi Furuya*, André Lee*, Takanori Oku, Eckart Altenmüller.: Aberrant somatosensory-motor adaptation in musicians' dystonia. Movement Disorders 35(5): 808-815, 2020
Masato Hirano, Yudai Kimoto, Shinichi Furuya.: Specialized somatosensory-motor integration functions in musicians. Cerebral Cortex 30(3): 1148-1158, 2020
Yudai Kimoto, Takanori Oku, Shinichi Furuya.: Neuromuscular and biomechanical functions subserving finger dexterity in musicians. Scientific Reports 9:12224, 2019
Takanori Oku, Shinichi Furuya.: Neuromuscular incoordination in musicians' dystonia. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders 65: 97-104, 2019
Kazumasa Uehara, Shinichi Furuya, Hidemi Numasawa, Kahori Kita, Takashi Sakamoto, Takashi Hanakawa.: Distinct roles of brain activity and somatotopic representation in pathophysiology of focal dystonia. Human Brain Mapping 40(6) 1738-1749, 2019
Kahori Kita*, Jaroslav Rokicki*, Shinichi Furuya, Takashi Sakamoto, Takashi Hanakawa.: Resting-state basal ganglia connectivity codes a motor musical skill and its disruption due to a disease process. Movement Disorders 33(9) 1472-1480, 2018
Shuntaro Kotani, Shinichi Furuya.: State anxiety disorganizes finger movements during musical performance. Journal of Neurophysiology 120(2) 439-451, 2018
Shinichi Furuya*, Sayuri Yokota*.: Temporal exploration of sequential movements in sequential movements shapes efficient neuromuscular control. Journal of Neurophysiology 120(1) 196-210, 2018
Shinichi Furuya*, Kazumasa Uehara*, Takashi Sakamoto, Takashi Hanakawa.: Aberrant cortical excitability explains the loss of hand dexterity in musician’s dystonia. The Journal of Physiology 596(12) 2397-2411, 2018
Shinichi Furuya*, Yuta Furukawa*, Kazumasa Uehara, Takanori Oku.: Probing sensory-motor integration during musical performance. Annals of the New York Academy of Science 1423(1) 211-218, 2018
Masato Hirano, Shinji Kubota, Shinichi Furuya, Yoshiki Koizume, Shinya Tanaka, and Kozo Funase.: The acquisition of skilled finger movements is accompanied by the reorganization of the corticospinal system. Journal of Neurophysiology 119(2):573-584, 2018
Shinichi Furuya.: Individual differences in sensorimotor skills among musicians. Current Opinion in Behavioral Science 20: 61-66, 2018
Yuta Furukawa, Kazumasa Uehara, Shinichi Furuya.: Expertise-dependent motor somatotopy of music perception. Neuroscience Letters 650: 97-102, 2017
Eckart Altenmüller. Shinichi Furuya.: Apollos Gift and Curse: Making music as a model for adaptive and maladaptive plasticity. Neuroforum 23(2): 57-75, 2017
Sarah Pirio Richardson, Eckart Altenmüller, Katharine Alter, Ron L. Alterman, Robert Chen, Steven Frucht, Shinichi Furuya, Joseph Jankovic, H. A. Jinnah, Teresa J. Kimberley, Codrin Lungu, Joel S. Perlmutter, Cecília N. Prudente, Mark Hallett.: Research priorities in limb and task-specific dystonias. Frontiers in Neurology 8:170, 2017
Takanori Oku*, Shinichi Furuya*.: Skillful force control in expert pianists. Experimental Brain Research 235(5), 1603-1615, 2017
Eckart Altenmüller. Shinichi Furuya.: Brain plasticity and the concept of metaplasticity in skilled musicians. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. 957:197-208, 2016
Moe Hosoda, Shinichi Furuya.: Shared somatosensory and motor functions in musicians. Scientific Reports 6: 37632, 2016
Kenta Tominaga, Andre Lee, Eckart Altenmüller, Fumio Miyazaki, Shinichi Furuya.: Kinematic origins of motor fluctuation in expert pianists. PLoS One 11(8):e0161324, 2016
Christos Ioannou, Shinichi Furuya, Eckart Altenmüller.: Objective evaluation of performance stress in musicians with dystonia: a feasibility study. Journal of Motor Behavior 48(6):562-572, 2016
Andre Lee, Jacob Voget, Shinichi Furuya, Masanori Morise, Eckart Altenmüller.: Quantification of sound instability in embouchure tremor based on the time varying fundamental frequency. Journal of Neural Transmission 123(5):515-521, 2016
Christos Ioannou, Shinichi Furuya, Eckart Altenmüller.: The impact of stress on motor performance in skilled musicians suffering from focal dystonia: Physiological and psychological characteristics. Neuropsychologia 85:226-236, 2016
Shinichi Furuya, Takashi Hanakawa.: The curse of motor expertise: use-dependent focal dystonia as manifestation of maladaptive changes in body representation. Neuroscience Research 104: 112-119, 2016
Shinichi Furuya, Takayuki Oku, Fumio Miyazaki, Hiroshi Kinoshita.: Secrets of virtuoso: neuromuscular attributes of motor virtuosity in expert musicians. Scientific Reports 5:15750, 2015
Shinichi Furuya, Kenta Tominaga, Fumio Miyazaki, Eckart Altenmüller: Losing dexterity: impaired coordination of finger movements in musician's dystonia. Scientific Reports 5:13360, 2015
Shinichi Furuya, Eckart Altenmüller: Acquisition and reacquisition of motor coordination in musicians. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1337: 118–124, 2015
Sara Winges, Shinichi Furuya: Distinct digit kinematics by professional and amateur pianists. Neuroscience 284: 643–652, 2015
Andre Lee, Kenta Tominaga, Shinichi Furuya, Fumio Miyazaki, Eckart Altenmüller: Electrophysiological characteristics of task-specific tremor in 22 instrumentalists. Journal of Neural Transmission 122(3): 393-401, 2015
Shinichi Furuya, Matthias Klaus, Michael Nitsche, Walter Paulus, Eckart Altenmüller: Ceiling effects prevent further improvement of transcranial stimulation in skilled musicians. The Journal of Neuroscience 34(41):13834 - 13839, 2014
Andre Lee*, Shinichi Furuya*, Masanori Morise, Peter Iltius, Eckart Altenmüller: Quantification of instability of tone production in embouchure dystonia. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders 20(11):1161-1164, 2014
Andre Lee, Kenta Tominaga, Shinichi Furuya, Fumio Miyazaki, Eckart Altenmüller: Quantification of secondary task-specific tremor after temporal lobectomy. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8:559, 2014
Floris van Vugt, Shinichi Furuya, Henning Vauth, Hans-Christian Jabusch, Eckart Altenmüller. Spatial and temporal symmetries in motor primitives in skilled piano performance at different tempi. Experimental Brain Research 232(11): 3555-3567, 2014
Shinichi Furuya, Ayumi Nakamura, Noriko Nagata: Acquisition of individuated finger movements through musical practice. Neuroscience 275(C): 444-454, 2014
Shinichi Furuya, Ayumi Nakamura, Noriko Nagata: Extraction of finger coordination pattern associated with motor learning in piano practice using principal component analysis. Neuroscience Letters 577(C): 38-44, 2014
Andre Lee, Shinichi Furuya, Eckart Altenmüller: Epidemiology and treatment of 23 musicians with task specific tremor. Journal of Clinical Movement Disorders 1:5, 2014
Shinichi Furuya, Michael Nitsche, Walter Paulus, Eckart Altenmüller: Surmounting retraining limits in musicians’ dystonia by transcranial stimulation. Annals of Neurology 75(5): 700-707, 2014
Marieke van der Steen, Eva Molendijk, Eckart Altenmüller, Shinichi Furuya: Expert pianists do not listen: the expertise-dependent influence of temporal perturbation on the production of sequential movements. Neuroscience 269(C): 290-298, 2014
Andre Lee, Kenta Tominaga, Shinichi Furuya, Fumio Miyazaki, Eckart Altenmüller. Coherence of coactivation and acceleration in task-specific primary bowing tremor. Journal of Neural Transmission 121(7):739-742, 2014
Shinichi Furuya, Ayumi Nakamura, Noriko Nagata: Transfer of piano practice at submaximal speed in fast performance of skilled finger movements. BMC Neuroscience, 14: 133, 2013
Shinichi Furuya, Eckart Altenmüller: Finger-specific loss of independent control of finger movements in musician's dystonia. Neuroscience, 247C: 152-163, 2013
Andre Lee, Shinichi Furuya, Matthias Karst, Eckart Altenmüller: Alteration in predictability of sensory outcome of motor action in focal hand dystonia. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 172 (7 pages), 2013
Sara Winges, Shinichi Furuya, Nathaniel Faber, Martha Flanders: Patterns of muscle activity for digital coarticulation, Journal of Neurophysiology, 110(1), 230-242, 2013
Andre Lee, Kenta Tominaga, Shinichi Furuya, Fumio Miyazaki, Eckart Altenmüller: Task-specific tremor in violinists: evidence of coactivation in the 3-8 Hz frequency range. Movement Disorders, 28(13): 1890-1892, 2013
Shinichi Furuya, Eckart Altenmüller: Flexibility of movement organization in piano performance. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 173 (10 pages), 2013
Shinichi Furuya, Michael Nitsche, Walter Paulus, Eckart Altenmüller: Early optimization in finger dexterity of skilled pianists: implication of transcranial stimulation. BMC Neuroscience, 14:35 (8 pages), 2013
Rebecca Schaefer, Shinichi Furuya, Leigh Smith, Blair Kaneshiro, Petri Toiviainen: Probing neural mechanisms of music perception, cognition, and performance using multivariate decoding, Psychomusicology, 22(2), 168-174, 2012
Shinichi Furuya, John Soechting: Speed invariance of independent control of finger movements in pianists, Journal of Neurophysiology, 108(7), 2060-2068, 2012
Shinichi Furuya, Tomoko Aoki, Hidehiro Nakahara, Hiroshi Kinoshita: Individual differences in the biomechanical effect of loudness and tempo on upper-limb movements during repetitive piano keystrokes, Human Movement Science, 31(1), 26-39, 2012
Shinichi Furuya, Martha Flanders, John Soechting: Hand kinematics of piano playing. Journal of Neurophysiology, 106(6), 2849-2864, 2011
Shinichi Furuya, Tatsushi Goda, Haruhiro Katayose, Hiroyoshi Miwa, Noriko Nagata: Distinct interjoint coordination during fast alternate keystroke in pianists with superior skill. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 5, 50 (13 pages), 2011
Hidehiro Nakahara, Shinichi Furuya, Tsutomu Masuko, Peter Francis, Hiroshi Kinoshita: Performing music can induce greater modulation of emotion-related psychophysiological responses than listening to music, International Journal of Psychophysiology, 81(3), 152-158, 2011
Shinichi Furuya, Eckart Altenmüller, Haruhiro Katayose, Hiroshi Kinoshita: Control of multi-joint arm movements for the manipulation of touch in keystroke by expert pianists. BMC Neuroscience, 11(1), 82 (15 pages), 2010
Shinichi Furuya, John Soechting: Role of auditory feedback in the control of successive keystrokes during piano playing, Experimental Brain Research, 204(2), 223-237, 2010
Hidehiro Nakahara, Shinichi Furuya, Peter Francis, Hiroshi Kinoshita: Psycho-physiological responses to expressive piano performance, International Journal of Psychophysiology, 75(3), 268-276, 2010
Shinichi Furuya, Rieko Osu, Hiroshi Kinoshita: Effective utilization of gravity during arm downswing in keystroke by expert pianists. Neuroscience, 164(2), 822-831, 2009
Hidehiro Nakahara, Shinichi Furuya, Tsutomu Masuko, Satoshi Obata, Hiroshi Kinoshita: Emotion-related changes in heart rate and its variability during perception and performance of music, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1169(1), 359-362, 2009
Shinichi Furuya, Hiroshi Kinoshita: Expertise-dependent modulation of muscular and non-muscular torques in multi-joint arm movements during piano keystroke. Neuroscience, 156(2), 390-402, 2008
Shinichi Furuya, Hiroshi Kinoshita: Organization of the upper limb movement for piano key-depression differs between expert pianists and novice players, Experimental Brain Research, 185(4), 581-593, 2008
Shinichi Furuya, Hiroshi Kinoshita: Roles of proximal-to-distal sequential organization of the upper limb segments in striking the keys by expert pianists, Neuroscience Letters, 421(3), 264-269, 2007
Hiroshi Kinoshita, Shinichi Furuya, Tomoko Aoki, Eckart Altenmüller: Loudness control in pianists as exemplified in keystroke force measurements at different touches, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 121(5Pt1), 2959-2969, 2007
Shinichi Furuya, Hidehiro Nakahara, Tomoko Aoki, Hiroshi Kinoshita: Prevalence and causal factors of playing-related musculoskeletal disorders of the upper extremity and trunk among Japanese pianists and piano students, Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 21(3), 112-117, 2006
Tomoko Aoki, Shinichi Furuya, Hiroshi Kinoshita: Finger tapping ability in male and female pianists and nonmusician control, Motor Control, 9(1), 23-39, 2005
On Media
Introduction of "Musical Dynaformics" on Sony Stories
Musical Dynaformics: R&D for enhancing expertise and preventing injury
Technology-based support for musicians by PEAC
PEAC: Physical Education for Artists Curriculum
Neuro-rehabilitation for Musicians' Dystonia @ RTL (in German)
Joint Event with Lang Lang @ SONY Explora Science (in Japanese)
Sony CSL Stories (3oth year anniversary)
An overview of activities of Sony CSL incl. a brief introduction of our research
TEDxSophia 2016 "Harmonizing Science with Musicians"
Interested in working at MED lab?
More about our research? www.neuropiano.net
Research Assistant
for students
Internship
for students & postdocs
Post-doc
for PhD students/holders
Opportunities to Join MED Lab
For students and post-docs
Students & Internship
Please make sure that currently I'm NOT eligible to formally accept any new undergrad students as a supervisor at Sophia University.
However, I CAN accept some students who get involved in our research projects as a paid project-based part-time member (e.g. RA and internship who assists running experiments and data analysis as well as other research-related activities). The part-time members are required to have some expertise (e.g. programming), and will be selected through our screening process. Please feel free to contact me about the details. You can join us as a part of our JST CREST project or Sony CSL internship program. I have/had accepted students from Tokyo Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo, pre-med student from the United States, students from University of London Goldsmiths, and a physical therapist (PT). Your workplace will be Sony CSL Tokyo. I will provide financial supports based on your expertise and what projects you get involved in.
If your supervisor formally agrees with my co-supervision of your research, I'm willing to accept it based on mutual consent. I have/had supervised students from different universities in this way (e.g. Kwansei Gakuin University, Hannover Medical University, Sophia University). Currently, I have been supervising 2 PhD students.
If you are an international student/scholar, you can also work with us temporarily (e.g. 3-6 months) as an internship student/scholar. If you are a graduate student, I do recommend you to obtain a permission of your formal mentor. Our company, Sony CSL, has an international internship program covering cost of your flight and accommodation (there's a max. limit of the coverage), which you may want to apply for (email here). Also, Japanese government has some fellowships for temporally-visiting scholars, which can fund your trip and stay (e.g. JSPS).
In any case, we particularly welcome students with basic skills and knowledge of computer programming (e.g. Matlab, R, Python, and/or C++) and statistics.
Post-docs
If you are interested in working with us as a post-doc, please get in touch. There are several options.
First, we are currently seeking for 1 or 2 postdoc researchers who study (1) a novel training for surmounting the limits of expertise of expert pianists, and/or (2) physiological mechanisms of musical preference. For the project (1), the target expertise includes sensorimotor skills for creating a variety of movement repertories and robust recall of motor memory against choking under pressure, but is not limited to these. For the project (2), the target is to decode music preference from multimodal physiological/neural signals and exploit the decoded information for the reward-based reinforcement learning. If you are interested in, please contact us. The workplace will be Sony CSL Tokyo, and our company will support your moving and finding your living place (e.g. apartment).
In addition, your country may offer fellowships supporting your research activities in Japan (e.g. Alexander von Humboldt, DFG, Marie Curie, Fulbright). Also, the Japanese government (JSPS) provides a fellowship for young foreign researchers (max. 2 yrs, highly-recommended!). A big advantage of German researchers is that I am also eligible to be a host of "Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship" of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (the success rate is ~40%, which is higher than the others!).
I have a space, equipment, and projects for post-docs in my lab (SONY CSL at Tokyo), and can provide unique opportunities of investigating a lot of expert musicians and musicians with focal dystonia with neurophysiological, robotic, VR/AR, and psychophysic techniques. Our institute has many international scholars and all of the researchers and staffs communicate in English. You may have opportunities of networking and collaborating with our research colleagues in Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka, because I have some grants collaborating with the other scholars with different expertise.
Post-docs are strongly encouraged to have fundamental knowledge/skill of both statistics (e.g. R) and programming (e.g. Matlab, Python). People with experience of programming (C++, C#, JAVA, Python, and/or Unity), haptic interface, human psychophysics, physiological measurement such as TMS/EEG/EMG, robotics, and/or machine learning are also highly welcomed.
Contact Form
Don't hesitate to contact me about any questions which may arise.
© 2014