Tapping the beat of four subdivisions: Neural entrainment, musical training and the binary advantage
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
04:00 UTC
Dr Alexandre Celma-Miralles
Aarhus University
Recording
Open recording
Hosted by Timing Research Forum30 minutes
Abstract
The subdivision benefit refers to the positive effect of subdividing a beat on sensorimotor synchronization. We recorded electroencephalograms of musicians and non-musicians to study how they listened or finger-tapped to a beat, subdivided into four distinct subdivisions. Musicians showed more consistent tapping responses than non-musicians, and enhanced neural entrainment during the tapping task than in the listening task. In both groups, there was a neural enhancement of the beat frequency and its first harmonic (related to duplets) after listening to the four subdivisions. Furthermore, non-musicians tapped more consistently to the beat of duplets than other subdivisions. Altogether, this suggests a neural and behavioral advantage for binary subdivisions, that can be modulated with formal training in music.
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