Abstract
Musical ensemble performance requires temporally precise interpersonal action coordination. To play in synchrony, ensemble musicians presumably rely on anticipatory mechanisms that enable them to predict the timing of sounds produced by co-performers. Previous studies have shown that individuals differ in their ability to predict upcoming tempo changes in paced finger-tapping tasks (indexed by cross-correlations between tap timing and pacing events) and that the degree of such prediction influences the accuracy of sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) and interpersonal coordination in dyadic tapping tasks. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated the neural correlates of auditory temporal predictions during SMS in a within-subject design. Hemodynamic responses were recorded from 18 musicians while they tapped in synchrony with auditory sequences containing gradual tempo changes under conditions of varying cognitive load (achieved by a simultaneous visual n-back working-memory task comprising three levels of difficulty: observation only, 1-back, and 2-back object comparisons). Prediction ability during SMS decreased with increasing cognitive load. Results of a parametric analysis revealed that the generation of auditory temporal predictions during SMS recruits (1) a distributed network of cortico-cerebellar motor-related brain areas (left dorsal premotor and motor cortex, right lateral cerebellum, SMA proper and bilateral inferior parietal cortex) and (2) medial cortical areas (medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex). While the first network is presumably involved in basic sensory prediction, sensorimotor integration, motor timing, and temporal adaptation, activation in the second set of areas may be related to higher-level social-cognitive processes elicited during action coordination with auditory signals that resemble music performed by human agents.
Highlights
The ability to predict the time course of events as they unfold in the immediate environment is a fundamental skill that underlies most activities in everyday life
Paired comparisons between individual conditions revealed that prediction/tracking ratios decreased significantly from tapping only condition (Tap) over tapping and 1-back object comparisons (Tap1B) to tapping and 2-back object comparisons (Tap2B) [t(38) > 3.84, ps < 0.001]
Paired comparisons between individual conditions revealed that prediction/tracking ratios were significantly higher during finger tapping without working-memory demands (Tap) than in the Tap1B [t(17) = 4.07, p < 0.01] and Tap2B conditions [t(17) = 5.01, p < 0.001]
Summary
The ability to predict the time course of events as they unfold in the immediate environment is a fundamental skill that underlies most activities in everyday life. Studies of small ensembles with two or three instruments report that sounds that are notated to be produced simultaneously by different instrumental voices are typically played with small asynchronies between them, with a spread of only around 30–50 ms or less (Rasch, 1979, 1988; Shaffer, 1984; Palmer, 1997; Goebl and Palmer, 2009; Keller and Appel, 2010) This high level of synchrony can be retained during expressive musical passages that are characterized by considerable deviations from isochronous tempo (Shaffer, 1984). Musicians presumably rely on anticipatory mechanisms, among other processes, which allow them to predict the sounds that will be produced by their co-performers and coordinate their own anticipated actions with these predictions (see Keller, 2008)
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