Why ballet dancers never get dizzy

789-Swan Lake rehearsal at Monte casino, where St Petersburg Ballet Theatre hosted a media call. Johannesburg 09.07.2013 Picture:Dumisani Dube

789-Swan Lake rehearsal at Monte casino, where St Petersburg Ballet Theatre hosted a media call. Johannesburg 09.07.2013 Picture:Dumisani Dube

Published Oct 21, 2013

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London - Ballet dancers are not just twinkle-toed, they also appear to have pirouette-proof brains. A study has identified important differences in their brains that prevent them feeling dizzy during those endless spins.

It implies that years of training can enable dancers to suppress signals from the balance organs in the inner ear, which might otherwise make them fall over.

The findings, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, could help to improve treatment for patients with chronic dizziness, which affects one in four people at some point during their lives.

Normally, the feeling of dizziness stems from the vestibular organs in the inner ear. These fluid-filled chambers sense rotation of the head through tiny hairs that sense the fluid moving. After turning around rapidly, the fluid continues to move, which can make you feel like you’re still spinning.

Ballet dancers can perform multiple pirouettes with little or no feeling of dizziness.

The findings show this feat isn’t just down to spotting – a technique dancers use that involves rapidly moving the head to fix their gaze on the same spot.

Researchers at Imperial College London recruited 29 female ballet dancers to compare against 20 women rowers of similar age and fitness levels.

The volunteers were spun around in a chair in a dark room. They were asked to turn a handle in time with how quickly they felt like they were still spinning after they had stopped.

The researchers also measured eye reflexes triggered by input from the vestibular organs. Later, they examined the participants’ brain structure with MRI scans.

In dancers, the eye reflexes and their perception of spinning lasted a shorter time than in the rowers.

Dr Barry Seemungal from the department of medicine at Imperial College in London, said: “Ballet dancers seem to be able to train themselves not to get dizzy, so we wondered whether we could use the same principles to help our patients.”

The brain scans revealed differences between the groups in two parts of the brain: an area in the cerebellum where sensory input from the vestibular organs is processed and in the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for the perception of dizziness. The area in the cerebellum was smaller in dancers.

Dr Seemungal thinks this is because dancers would be better off not using their vestibular systems, relying instead on highly co-ordinated pre-programmed movements.

He said: “It’s not useful for a ballet dancer to feel dizzy or off balance. Their brains adapt over years of training to suppress that input.“ – Daily Mail

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