WITHWearing compression shorts and adorned with reflective motion capture dots scattered throughout my body, I recently danced in front of an array of cameras while a team of researchers watched. Ostensibly, I was there to help them understand lower back pain, an ailment I had recently become all too familiar with. As part of their analysis, they record the daily body movements performed by me and other study participants, digitize our skeletons, and look for patterns in the painful bends and stretches of our aching bones.
I wasn't invited to the dance. I was told to just bend over and stretch. But for me, turning into a cartoon skeleton was too great an opportunity to limit myself to impartial data collection. And being in the midst of spooky season, I thought it fitting to imitate the classic routine first performed by the icons of early animation. Fortunately, my scientific mentors indulged my whim. Here I present my interpretation of the events of 1929. Skeleton danceWalt Disney's first film Silly Symphony animated short film.
First the original:
And now my opinion:
All this took place in the laboratory of Linda Van Dillen, a physical therapy researcher at nearby Washington University in St. Louis, whose study I signed up for after adjusting my back while doing housework a few months ago.
Van Dillen and her colleagues aim to ease the suffering of people suffering from what they call low back pain. Worldwide, it is the leading cause of disability, affecting almost all 60-80 percent of adults at some point in your life. By studying people with varying degrees of pain like mine for several months after the first attack of pain, her team is trying to characterize the transition from acute to chronic low back pain. If they can identify similarities in the way people with acute and chronic back pain move, doctors and therapists may be able to target specific areas of the body before the initial pain becomes long-standing, Van Dillen told me recently in an email.
So, about every month, my research colleagues and I travel to the University of Washington to help Van Dillen's team capture the characteristic movements of people experiencing such pain. When we get there, the researchers cover our legs, pelvis, chest and one arm with reflective dots and have us perform simple movements like bending over to pick up a box. They record everything using 8 high-tech motion capture cameras, like those used in Hollywood blockbusters, that bring incredible creatures to life on the big screen. Between sessions, we answer surveys that track not only our pain symptoms, but also other biological and psychological factors associated with our ongoing discomfort.
The scientists will later analyze the collected data to improve and standardize the assessment process that doctors use to diagnose and treat those who suffer from low back pain. By monitoring our progress over the course of a year, Van Dillen and her team hope to find a better method for early detection and treatment of such pain. These Improvements Can Stop Acute Low Back Pain Before It Begins chronic problemreducing “health care costs for this often costly and long-term disease,” she said.
A worthy scientific goal, of course. But also a great opportunity to have a little fun. Enjoy my dancing skeleton and please let it remind you (like me) that frivolity is sometimes the best medicine.
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Main image: still from 1929. Skeleton dancefirst Silly Symphony from Walt Disney
