Dancing queen

Wedding season is fast approaching, and the Science Lite team are begrudgingly dusting off our glad-rags and dancing shoes ready to embarrass ourselves on the dreaded dance floor.

While we know we’ll never have the style and skill of Fred Astaire or the grace of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing winner Kara Tointon – even after the champagne toast and several glasses of wine – we’re keeping our fingers firmly crossed that we won’t resemble Ann Widdecombe being dragged about aimlessly.

But even if we are completely out of time and don’t know any of the moves to Saturday Night, The Ketchup Song or The Macarena – yes, we’re cool, we’re hip...ahem – we’re quite pleased to report we have an excuse for our pitiful performance: GABA.

You’ve heard the expression “they have two left feet”, but in actual fact whether a person can dance or not has nothing to do with their feet – it’s all in their head, more specifically the brain. A chemical messenger called GABA – or gamma-aminobutyric acid – is important for the plasticity of the motor cortex, the part of the brain involved in planning, control and execution of voluntary movements, including dancing.

Researchers from the University of Oxford discovered that people who were fast to learn a simple sequence of finger motions showed large changes of GABA in the brain following electrical stimulation.

The researchers took 12 healthy young adults and measured GABA levels in the brain using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. They were subjected to a low-level electric current – known to reduce GABA within the motor cortex – delivered through their scalps in a process called anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). From this, researchers worked out their baseline GABA levels and GABA responsiveness.

A few days later, researchers asked participants to learn a sequence of finger motions – ten taps of the fingers of one hand on a pad of buttons – while their brains were scanned by fMRI. It turned out that those who were more GABA responsive were quicker to learn the task and showed greater activation in the motor cortex while learning. This was because their levels of GABA – which acts as an inhibitor, preventing neurons from linking to each other – reduced rapidly allowing cells to create new brain circuitry and therefore learn the sequence.

Most participants were able to learn the sequence, but the Science Lite team feel sorry for the one who was unable to – his GABA levels remained high and slowed down the brain’s ability to learn.

But how does this relate to whether you’re good with the Cha-Cha-Cha or just look like you’re doing the Birdy Song? Well, apparently learning a sequence of finger taps is akin to the coordination needed to learn dance moves, or to learn how to play the piano.

We’re not sure if this research would have made any difference to Craig Revill-Horwood’s scathing comments after each of Ann Widdecombe’s performances – not that she needed any help with her witty comebacks.

So whether you’ve got two left feet or are embarrassed by your ‘Dad dancing’ friends and family, at least you can tell them you know it’s not their fault – it’s probably down to GABA.