Abstract
The ability to dance relies on the ability to synchronize movements to a perceived musical beat. Typically, beat synchronization is studied with auditory stimuli. However, in many typical social dancing situations, music can also be perceived as vibrations when objects that generate sounds also generate vibrations. This vibrotactile musical perception is of particular relevance for deaf people, who rely on non-auditory sensory information for dancing. In the present study, we investigated beat synchronization to vibrotactile electronic dance music in hearing and deaf people. We tested seven deaf and 14 hearing individuals on their ability to bounce in time with the tempo of vibrotactile stimuli (no sound) delivered through a vibrating platform. The corresponding auditory stimuli (no vibrations) were used in an additional condition in the hearing group. We collected movement data using a camera-based motion capture system and subjected it to a phase-locking analysis to assess synchronization quality. The vast majority of participants were able to precisely time their bounces to the vibrations, with no difference in performance between the two groups. In addition, we found higher performance for the auditory condition compared to the vibrotactile condition in the hearing group. Our results thus show that accurate tactile-motor synchronization in a dance-like context occurs regardless of auditory experience, though auditory-motor synchronization is of superior quality.
Highlights
Dancing is a widespread human activity, shared universally across cultures and throughout human history (Nettl, 2000)
There was no difference between the two conditions for Stimulus Modality, F(1, 6) = 0.04, p = 0.85, ηp2 = 0.0061, no effect of Tempo, F(2, 12) = 1.91, p = 0.19, ηp2 = 0.24, and no interaction effect between these two factors, F(2, 12) = 0.71, p = 0.51, ηp2 = 0.11, see Figure 2
Our results indicate that both hearing and deaf individuals can synchronize a bouncing motion to a vibrotactile beat
Summary
Dancing is a widespread human activity, shared universally across cultures and throughout human history (Nettl, 2000). Music can be experienced through the tactile sense: Sound waves can generate vibrations in nearby objects, and these vibrations can be sensed by the somatosensory system via mechanoreceptors in the body This experience is typical in a social dance setting, such as in a night club, where it is common for individuals to feel the music’s bass as vibrations through the floor and/or resonating inside the Vibrotactile Beat Synchronization chest cavity. These low-frequencies are where the most salient beat information is generally transmitted (Van Dyck et al, 2013), and as such, the vibrations generated by these frequencies may be useful for beat synchronization
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