# Adaptive Adjustments in Lower Limb Muscle Coordination during Single-Leg Landing Tasks in Latin Dancers

## TL;DR

This study compares muscle coordination during landing tasks in Latin dancers and healthy individuals, revealing unique adjustments in specific muscles among dancers.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel perspective on neuromuscular control patterns in Latin dancers using muscle synergy analysis.

## Key findings

- Latin dancers showed increased tibialis anterior and medial gastrocnemius contributions in synergy 1 compared to healthy controls.
- Healthy participants exhibited greater vastus lateralis contributions in synergy 3 than Latin dancers.
- Muscle synergies in Latin dancers are similar to healthy controls, indicating optimized control strategies during landing.

## Abstract

Previous research has primarily focused on evaluating the activity of individual muscles in dancers, often neglecting their synergistic interactions. Investigating the differences in lower limb muscle synergy during landing between dancers and healthy controls will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of their neuromuscular control patterns. This study enrolled 22 Latin dancers and 22 healthy participants, who performed a task involving landing from a 30 cm high platform. The data were collected using Vicon systems, force plates, and electromyography (EMG). The processed EMG data were subjected to non-negative matrix factorization (NNMF) for decomposition, followed by classification using K-means clustering algorithm and Pearson correlation coefficients. Three synergies were extracted for both Latin dancers and healthy participants. Synergy 1 showed increased contributions from the tibialis anterior (p < 0.001) and medial gastrocnemius (p = 0.024) in Latin dancers compared to healthy participants. Synergy 3 highlighted significantly greater contributions from the vastus lateralis in healthy participants compared to Latin dancers (p = 0.039). This study demonstrates that Latin dancers exhibit muscle synergies similar to those observed in healthy controls, revealing specific adjustments in the tibialis anterior and medial gastrocnemius muscles among dancers. This research illustrates how dancers optimize control strategies during landing tasks, offering a novel perspective for comprehensively understanding dancers’ neuromuscular control patterns.