Skip to main content
Log in

The role of temporal prediction abilities in interpersonal sensorimotor synchronization

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Musical ensemble performance is a form of joint action that requires highly precise yet flexible interpersonal action coordination. To maintain synchrony during expressive passages that contain tempo variations, musicians presumably anticipate the sounds that will be produced by their co-performers. Our previous studies revealed that individuals differ in their ability to predict upcoming event timing when finger tapping in synchrony with tempo-changing pacing signals (i.e., the degree to which inter-tap intervals match vs. lag behind inter-onset intervals in the pacing signal varies between individuals). The current study examines the influence of these individual differences on synchronization performance in a dyadic tapping task. In addition, the stability of individual prediction tendencies across time is tested. Individuals with high or low prediction tendencies were invited to participate in two experimental sessions. In both sessions, participants were asked (1) to tap alone with a tempo-changing pacing signal and (2) to tap synchronously in dyads comprising individuals with similar or different prediction tendencies. Results indicated that individual differences in prediction tendencies were stable over several months and played a significant role in dyadic synchronization. Dyads composed of two high-predicting individuals tapped with higher accuracy and less variability than low-predicting dyads, while mixed dyads were intermediate. Prediction tendencies explained variance in dyadic synchronization performance over and above individual synchronization ability. These findings suggest that individual differences in temporal prediction ability may potentially mediate the interaction of cognitive, motor, and social processes underlying musical joint action.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We assigned participants to one of the two groups in order to manipulate dyad composition experimentally (with respect to individual prediction abilities) and to test its effect on dyadic SMS performance. Note, however, that prediction tendencies exist on a continuum and are approximately normally distributed.

  2. This deletion was necessary because ITIs of one participant were used as reference period to estimate the other participant’s tapping performance, and vice versa. Each missing tap of one participant results in an artifactually large ITI, which misleadingly suggests that the ‘non-missing’ tap of the second participant occurred in anti-phase.

  3. Note that signed tap-to-tap asynchronies were used for the calculation of dyadic SMS variability, while dyadic SMS accuracy was based on absolute asynchronies. Absolute values were necessary for the latter, because otherwise vector directions of the two participants cancel each other out when averaged.

References

  • Berens P (2009) CircStat: A MATLAB toolbox for circular statistics. J Stat Softw 31:1–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Blakemore SJ, Frith C (2005) The role of motor contagion in the prediction of action. Neuropsychologia 43:260–267

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clynes M, Walker J (1986) Music as time’s measure. Music Percept 4:85–119

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon S, Goebl W, Cambouropoulos E (2006) Perceptual smoothness of tempo in expressively performed music. Music Percept 23:195–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher NI (1993) Statistical analysis of circular data. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Goebl W, Palmer C (2009) Synchronization of timing and motion among performing musicians. Music Percept 26:427–438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hove MJ, Risen JL (2009) It’s all in the timing: interpersonal synchrony increases affiliation. Soc Cognit 27:949–961

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson RC, Warren S, Abernethy B (2006) Anticipation skill and susceptibility to deceptive movement. Acta Psychol 123:355–371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller PE (2008) Joint action in music performance. In: Morganti F, Carassa A, Riva G (eds) Enacting intersubjectivity: a cognitive and social perspective to the study of interactions. IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp 205–221

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller PE, Appel M (2010) Individual differences, auditory imagery, and the coordination of body movements and sounds in musical ensembles. Music Percept 28:27–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller PE, Knoblich G, Repp BH (2007) Pianists duet better when they play with themselves: on the possible role of action simulation in synchronization. Conscious Cognit 16:102–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirschner S, Tomasello M (2009) Joint drumming: social context facilitates synchronization in preschool children. J Exp Child Psychol 102:299–314

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kirschner S, Tomasello M (2010) Joint music making promotes prosocial behavior in 4-year-old children. Evol Hum Behav 31:354–364

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kleinspehn A (2008) Goal-directed interpersonal action synchronization across the lifespan. Dissertation, Free University of Berlin

  • Knoblich G, Jordan JS (2003) Action coordination in groups and individuals: learning anticipatory control. J Exp Psychol Learn 29:1006–1016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Konvalinka I, Vuust P, Roepstorff A, Frith CD (2010) Follow you, follow me: continuous mutual prediction and adaptation in joint tapping. Q J Exp Psychol 63:2220–2230

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindenberger U, Li SC, Gruber W, Müller V (2009) Brains swinging in concert: cortical phase synchronization while playing guitar. BMC Neurosci 10:22

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Madison G, Merker B (2005) Timing of action during and after synchronization with linearly changing intervals. Music Percept 22:441–459

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merker B, Madison G, Eckerdal P (2009) On the role and origin of isochrony in human rhythmic entrainment. Cortex 45:4–17

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Michon JA (1967) Timing in temporal tracking. Van Gorcum, Assen

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowicki DL (2009) Shared clocks: investigating interpersonal sensorimotor synchronization. Dissertation, University of Leipzig

  • Pecenka N, Keller PE (2009a) Auditory pitch imagery and its relationship to musical synchronization. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1169:282–286

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pecenka N, Keller PE (2009b) The relationship between auditory imagery and musical synchronization abilities in musicians. In: Louhivuori J, Eerola T, Saarikallio S, Himberg T, Eerola PS (eds) Proceedings of the 7th triennial conference of European society for the cognitive sciences of music. Jyväskylä, Finland, pp 409–414

  • Rankin SK, Large EW, Fink PW (2009) Fractal tempo fluctuation and pulse prediction. Music Percept 26:401–413

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rasch RA (1979) Synchronization in performed ensemble music. Acustica 43:121–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Repp BH (1999) Control of expressive and metronomic timing in pianists. J Motor Behav 31:145–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Repp BH (2001) Processes underlying adaptation to tempo changes in sensorimotor synchronization. Hum Mov Sci 20:277–312

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Repp BH (2002) The embodiment of musical structure: effects of musical context on sensorimotor synchronization with complex timing patterns. In: Prinz W, Hommel B (eds) Common mechanisms in perception and action: attention and performance XIX. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 245–265

    Google Scholar 

  • Repp BH (2005) Sensorimotor synchronization: a review of the tapping literature. Psychon B Rev 12:969–992

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Repp BH (2006) Musical synchronization. In: Altenmueller E, Wiesendanger M, Kesselring J (eds) Music, motor control, and the brain. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 55–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti G, Craighero L (2004) The mirror-neuron system. Annu Rev Neurosci 27:169–192

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt RC, Christianson N, Carello C, Baron R (1994) Effects of social and physical variables on between-person visual coordination. Ecol Psychol 6:159–183

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sebanz N, Knoblich G (2009) Prediction in joint action: what, when, and where. Topics 1:353–367

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebanz N, Shiffrar M (2009) Detecting deception in a bluffing body: the role of expertise. Psychon B Rev 16:170–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaffer LH (1984) Timing in solo and duet piano performances. Q J Exp Psychol 36:577–595

    Google Scholar 

  • Thaut M, Tian B, Sadjadi MA (1998) Rhythmic finger tapping to cosine-wave modulated metronome sequences: evidence of subliminal entrainment. Hum Mov Sci 17:839–863

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vesper C, Butterfill S, Knoblich G, Sebanz N (2010) A minimal architecture for joint action. Neural Netw 23:998–1003

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vuust P, Ostergaard L, Pallesen KJ, Bailey C, Roepstorff A (2009) Predictive coding of music—brain responses to rhythmic incongruity. Cortex 45:80–92

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson M, Knoblich G (2005) The case for motor involvement in perceiving conspecifics. Psychol Bull 131:460–473

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wiltermuth SS, Heath C (2009) Synchrony and cooperation. Psychol Sci 20:1–5

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wolpert DM, Doya K, Kawato M (2003) A unifying computational framework for motor control and social interaction. Philos T Roy Soc B 358:593–602

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nadine Pecenka.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pecenka, N., Keller, P.E. The role of temporal prediction abilities in interpersonal sensorimotor synchronization. Exp Brain Res 211, 505–515 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2616-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2616-0

Keywords

Navigation