Overarm throwing is a fundamental human skill. Since paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies, the ability of throwing played a key role in brain and body co-evolution. For decades, throwing skill acquisition has been the subject of developmental and gender studies. However, due to its complex multijoint nature, whole body throwing has found little space in quantitative studies of motor behavior. In this study we examined how overarm throwing varies within and between individuals in a sample of untrained adults. To quantitatively compare whole body kinematics across throwing actions, we introduced a new combination of spatiotemporal principal component, linear discrimination, and clustering analyses. We found that the identity and gender of a thrower can be robustly inferred by the kinematics of a single throw, reflecting the characteristic features in individual throwing strategies and providing a quantitative ground for the well-known differences between males and females in throwing behavior. We also identified four main classes of throwing strategies, stable within individuals and resembling the main stages of throwing proficiency acquisition during motor development. These results support earlier proposals linking interindividual and gender differences in throwing, with skill acquisition interrupted at different stages of the typical developmental trajectory of throwing motor behavior.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Unconstrained throwing, because of its complexity, received little attention in quantitative motor control studies. By introducing a new approach to analyze whole body kinematics, we quantitatively characterized gender effects, interindividual differences, and common patterns in nontrained throwers. The four throwing styles identified across individuals resemble different stages in the acquisition of throwing skills during development. These results advance our understanding of complex motor skills, bridging the gap between motor control, motor development, and sport science.

Maselli, A., Dhawan, A., Russo, M., Cesqui, B., Lacquaniti, F., D'Avella, A. (2019). A whole body characterization of individual strategies, gender differences, and common styles in overarm throwing. JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY, 122(6), 2486-2503 [10.1152/jn.00011.2019].

A whole body characterization of individual strategies, gender differences, and common styles in overarm throwing

Russo, Marta;Lacquaniti, Francesco
Conceptualization
;
d'Avella, Andrea
2019-01-01

Abstract

Overarm throwing is a fundamental human skill. Since paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies, the ability of throwing played a key role in brain and body co-evolution. For decades, throwing skill acquisition has been the subject of developmental and gender studies. However, due to its complex multijoint nature, whole body throwing has found little space in quantitative studies of motor behavior. In this study we examined how overarm throwing varies within and between individuals in a sample of untrained adults. To quantitatively compare whole body kinematics across throwing actions, we introduced a new combination of spatiotemporal principal component, linear discrimination, and clustering analyses. We found that the identity and gender of a thrower can be robustly inferred by the kinematics of a single throw, reflecting the characteristic features in individual throwing strategies and providing a quantitative ground for the well-known differences between males and females in throwing behavior. We also identified four main classes of throwing strategies, stable within individuals and resembling the main stages of throwing proficiency acquisition during motor development. These results support earlier proposals linking interindividual and gender differences in throwing, with skill acquisition interrupted at different stages of the typical developmental trajectory of throwing motor behavior.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Unconstrained throwing, because of its complexity, received little attention in quantitative motor control studies. By introducing a new approach to analyze whole body kinematics, we quantitatively characterized gender effects, interindividual differences, and common patterns in nontrained throwers. The four throwing styles identified across individuals resemble different stages in the acquisition of throwing skills during development. These results advance our understanding of complex motor skills, bridging the gap between motor control, motor development, and sport science.
2019
Pubblicato
Rilevanza internazionale
Articolo
Esperti anonimi
Settore BIO/09 - FISIOLOGIA
English
Biomechanical Phenomena
Female
Human Development
Humans
Individuality
Learning
Male
Motor Activity
Motor Skills
Sex Factors
Young Adult
dimensionality reduction
fundamental motor behavior
interindividual variability
motor development
overarm throwing
Adult
ICT-23-2014
Maselli, A., Dhawan, A., Russo, M., Cesqui, B., Lacquaniti, F., D'Avella, A. (2019). A whole body characterization of individual strategies, gender differences, and common styles in overarm throwing. JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY, 122(6), 2486-2503 [10.1152/jn.00011.2019].
Maselli, A; Dhawan, A; Russo, M; Cesqui, B; Lacquaniti, F; D'Avella, A
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2108/262214
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