Body movement enhances the extraction of temporal structures in auditory sequences

Auditory and motor systems interact in processing auditory rhythms. This study investigated the effect of intuitive body movement, such as head nodding or foot tapping, on listeners’ ability to entrain to the pulse of an auditory sequence. A pulse-finding task was employed using an isochronous seque...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological research 2012-05, Vol.76 (3), p.373-382
Main Authors: Su, Yi-Huang, Pöppel, Ernst
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Adult
Audition
Auditory Perception - physiology
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Finger
Foot
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Head
Humans
Information processing
Listening
Motor systems
Motor task performance
Movement - physiology
Music
Musical performances
Musicians & conductors
Original Article
Perception
Psychological research
Psychology
Psychology Research
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time - physiology
Rhythm
Rhythms
Synchronization
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Summary:Auditory and motor systems interact in processing auditory rhythms. This study investigated the effect of intuitive body movement, such as head nodding or foot tapping, on listeners’ ability to entrain to the pulse of an auditory sequence. A pulse-finding task was employed using an isochronous sequence of tones in which tones were omitted at pseudorandom positions. Musicians and non-musicians identified their subjectively fitting pulse either using periodic body movement or through listening only. The identified pulse was measured subsequently by finger tapping. Movement appeared to assist pulse extraction especially for non-musicians. The chosen pulse tempi tended to be faster with movement. Additionally, movement led to higher synchronization stabilities of the produced pulse along the sequence, regardless of musical training. These findings demonstrated the facilitatory role of body movement in entraining to auditory rhythms and its interaction with musical training.
ISSN:0340-0727
1430-2772
DOI:10.1007/s00426-011-0346-3