Abstract
It has long been known that the auditory system is better suited to guide temporally precise behaviors like sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) than the visual system. Although this phenomenon has been studied for many years, the underlying neural and computational mechanisms remain unclear. Growing consensus suggests the existence of multiple, interacting, context-dependent systems, and that reduced precision in visuo-motor timing might be due to the way experimental tasks have been conceived. Indeed, the appropriateness of the stimulus for a given task greatly influences timing performance. In this review, we examine timing differences for sensorimotor synchronization and error correction with auditory and visual sequences, to inspect the underlying neural mechanisms that contribute to modality differences in timing. The disparity between auditory and visual timing likely relates to differences in the processing specialization between auditory and visual modalities (temporal vs. spatial). We propose this difference could offer potential explanation for the differing temporal abilities between modalities. We also offer suggestions as to how these sensory systems interface with motor and timing systems.
Highlights
Many behavioral studies have examined human timing ability in tasks of sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) where subjects synchronize their movements to an external rhythm.Comparisons between auditory metronomes and visual flashing metronomes reveal that movement synchronization is less variable and can occur at faster rates with auditory metronomes (Chen et al, 2002; Repp, 2003; Repp and Penel, 2004; Lorås et al, 2012)
Excellent reviews of the brain mechanisms involved in various timing activities include: a review of neural activity in music production (Zatorre et al, 2007); a review of neural activity involved in time perception (Wiener et al, 2010); and an overview of neural activation in SMS as part of a larger review of SMS (Repp and Su, 2013)
In addition to looking at the networks and regions involved in temporal processing, a growing body of work shows the role of cortical oscillations in encoding timing across multiple frequency bands
Summary
Many behavioral studies have examined human timing ability in tasks of sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) where subjects synchronize their movements to an external rhythm. Visuo-motor synchronization greatly improves when synchronizing with a moving periodic visual metronome (Hove et al, 2010). Adding a changing velocity profile to the moving visual metronome further reduces variability in SMS tapping (Hove et al, 2013a; Iversen et al, 2015), and Gan et al (2015) suggests that a more realistic velocity profile can bring visual SMS to be as temporally precise as auditory SMS, at moderate but not fast tempi. While most studies of SMS look at finger tapping, others have included synchronized circle drawing, gait, dancing, and eye movements in the context of modality-specific timing effects (e.g., Repp and Su, 2013)
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