How Beat Perception Co-opts Motor Neurophysiology

• Published in: Trends in cognitive sciences 2021-02, Vol.25 (2), p.137-150
• Main Authors: Cannon, Jonathan J., Patel, Aniruddh D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Auditory Perception; basal ganglia; beat perception; Humans; Motor Cortex; motor system; Movement; Music; music cognition; Neurophysiology; supplementary motor area
• ISSN: 1364-6613; 1879-307X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.11.002

Beat perception offers cognitive scientists an exciting opportunity to explore how cognition and action are intertwined in the brain even in the absence of movement. Many believe the motor system predicts the timing of beats, yet current models of beat perception do not specify how this is neurally implemented. Drawing on recent insights into the neurocomputational properties of the motor system, we propose that beat anticipation relies on action-like processes consisting of precisely patterned neural time-keeping activity in the supplementary motor area (SMA), orchestrated and sequenced by activity in the dorsal striatum. In addition to synthesizing recent advances in cognitive science and motor neuroscience, our framework provides testable predictions to guide future work. Components of the brain’s motor system are activated by the perception of a musical beat, even in the absence of movement, and may play an important role in beat-based temporal prediction.Two key brain regions involved in movement, the supplementary motor area (SMA) and dorsal striatum, have neurocomputational properties that lend themselves to beat perception.In SMA, neural firing rates represent the phase of cyclic sensorimotor processes.The involvement of SMA in perceptual suppression of self-generated sounds suggests that it could play a broader role in informing auditory expectations.The dorsal striatum plays a central role in initiating and sequencing units of movement, and may serve similar functions in structuring beat-based temporal anticipation.