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Trajectory formation during sensorimotor synchronization and syncopation to auditory and visual metronomes

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Abstract

Previous work on sensorimotor synchronization has investigated the dynamics of finger tapping and how individual movement trajectories contribute to timing accuracy via asymmetry in movement velocities. The present study investigated sensorimotor synchronization (in-phase) and syncopation (anti-phase) to both an auditory metronome and a visual flashing light at multiple frequencies to understand how individual movement phases contribute to the variability of timekeeping and error correction in different sensory modalities and with different task constraints. Results demonstrate that the proportional time spent in both the upward phase of movement and the holding phase of movement (time spent on the surface of the table) remain relatively invariant across both stimulus modalities and across tapping styles (syncopation and synchronization), but changes with interval duration, increasing as interval duration increases. The time spent in the downward phase of movement did significantly differ across stimulus modality and tapping style, increasing during both visuomotor timing and syncopation, accompanied by a significant decrease in flexion velocity during syncopation. Extension velocity and flexion time were found to be the main contributors to differences between visual and auditory timing, while flexion velocity and flexion time were found to be the main contributors to differences between synchronization and syncopation. No correlations were found between asynchrony and the upward, downward, or holding phases of movement, suggesting the existence of multiple error correction strategies.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Jessica Ross, other members of the Sensorimotor Neuroscience Laboratory, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments that greatly helped improve the manuscript. The work was partially supported by NSF Grant BCS 1460633 awarded to RB.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sensorimotor Neuroscience Laboratory, Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, 5200 N Lake Road, Merced, CA, 95343, USA

    Alexandria Pabst & Ramesh Balasubramaniam

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  1. Alexandria Pabst
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  2. Ramesh Balasubramaniam
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Correspondence to Ramesh Balasubramaniam.

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Pabst, A., Balasubramaniam, R. Trajectory formation during sensorimotor synchronization and syncopation to auditory and visual metronomes. Exp Brain Res 236, 2847–2856 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-018-5343-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-018-5343-y

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