Quantitative Analysis of Fourth-Finger Movement during Musical Expression in Early Childhood
Mina Sano *
Tokoha University, Shizuoka, Japan.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Musical expression in early childhood is an embodied process that involves the integration of perceptual systems in response to music. While previous research has examined overall body movement, the functional role of individual fingers remains insufficiently explored. This study aims to identify the functional characteristics of the fourth finger during musical expression in early childhood through quantitative movement analysis and simultaneous analysis of finger and eye movements. A total of 116 children aged 3–5 years participated in finger movement analysis using Meta Gloves connected to the MVN motion capture system. In addition, 58 children participated in simultaneous finger and eye movement analysis using an eye tracking system. Quantitative analyses were conducted for the fourth metacarpal, proximal, middle, and distal phalanges. A three-way non-repeated analysis of variance was conducted on the total moving distance, the moving average velocity, the moving average acceleration, and the moving smoothness calculated from the results of the movement analysis, with facility (3 levels), melody (2 levels), and age (3 levels) as factors. As a result, the total moving distance was larger for bright melodies than for dark melodies, and clear contrasts were observed between the moving average acceleration and the moving smoothness depending on melody type. The moving average acceleration was most characteristic in the fourth metacarpal and proximal phalanges, whereas the moving smoothness was most pronounced in the middle phalanges. These results were further validated by analysis using a linear mixed model to extract the characteristics of the fourth finger's movement through comparative analysis with other fingers.
Furthermore, simultaneous analyses of finger and eye movements revealed a close relationship between the two modalities during musical expression. These findings suggest that the extracted feature quantities reflect developmental processes in early childhood musical expression and contribute to improving the discrimination of developmental stages.
Keywords: Finger movement, meta gloves, simultaneous analysis, eye movement, musical expression, early childhood