Playing visual dominance of score on the piano: Skilled motor action matters in the awareness of musical notes during binocular rivalry, only when accompanied by auditory feedback

Abstract

Previous studies in our group showed that a visual musical score viewed dichoptically with a radial grating enjoyed longer dominance durations when presented with an auditory melody congruent to that score (Kim et al., VSS 2014; Lee et al., 2015). It has also been reported that an action relevant to a visual interpretation contributes to resolve perceptual ambiguity during binocular rivalry (Beets et al., 2010; Maruya et al., 2007). In the present study, we investigated whether a skilled motor action linked tightly to one of the two rival targets affects audiovisual interaction during rivalry. Sixteen observers with varying degree of piano playing skill viewed dichoptically a musical score scrolling from right to left within a viewing window and a counter-phase flickering radial grating. The perceptual dominance of visual musical score was tracked by playing the musical notes on the midi keyboard, while the grating dominance was tracked by pressing a button on a computer keyboard. On "sound" trials, participants heard the sound of piano being played by themselves. On "no sound" trials, auditory feedback was not accompanied by keyboard playing. Results showed a positive correlation between the degree of piano playing skill and the normalized score-dominance durations, only when the auditory feedback was accompanied. Accordingly, observers were divided in two groups based on the skill. In the more-trained group (8.3 ±0.89 years in training, N=8), the normalized score-dominance durations with auditory feedback were distributed toward the longer side than without auditory feedback, while there was no such effect observed in the less-trained group (3.6 ± 0.56 years, N=8). These results suggest that an execution of skilled motor action closely linked to a visual stimulus has impact on the interaction between the visual stimuli and the auditory feedback during binocular rivalry, which relies on the mastery of the motor skill. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2016