Abstract
Introduction: Musical performance is thought to rely predominantly on event-based timing involving a clock-like neural process and an explicit internal representation of the time interval. Some aspects of musical performance may rely on emergent timing, which is established through the optimization of movement kinematics, and can be maintained without reference to any explicit representation of the time interval. We predicted that musical training would have its largest effect on event-based timing, supporting the dissociability of these timing processes and the dominance of event-based timing in musical performance.Materials and Methods: We compared 22 musicians and 17 non-musicians on the prototypical event-based timing task of finger tapping and on the typically emergently timed task of circle drawing. For each task, participants first responded in synchrony with a metronome (Paced) and then responded at the same rate without the metronome (Unpaced).Results: Analyses of the Unpaced phase revealed that non-musicians were more variable in their inter-response intervals for finger tapping compared to circle drawing. Musicians did not differ between the two tasks. Between groups, non-musicians were more variable than musicians for tapping but not for drawing. We were able to show that the differences were due to less timer variability in musicians on the tapping task. Correlational analyses of movement jerk and inter-response interval variability revealed a negative association for tapping and a positive association for drawing in non-musicians only.Discussion: These results suggest that musical training affects temporal variability in tapping but not drawing. Additionally, musicians and non-musicians may be employing different movement strategies to maintain accurate timing in the two tasks. These findings add to our understanding of how musical training affects timing and support the dissociability of event-based and emergent timing modes.
Highlights
Musical performance is thought to rely predominantly on event-based timing involving a clock-like neural process and an explicit internal representation of the time interval
Analyses of the Unpaced phase revealed that non-musicians were more variable in their inter-response intervals for finger tapping compared to circle drawing
We know that musicians excel at tasks that typically engage event-based timing, such that musical training has been associated with greater temporal accuracy and precision in rhythmic tapping tasks (Franek et al, 1991; Repp, 2010; Bailey and Penhune, 2012)
Summary
Musical performance is thought to rely predominantly on event-based timing involving a clock-like neural process and an explicit internal representation of the time interval. Many forms of musical performance, such as drumming in a jazz ensemble, are characterized by mostly discrete movements with explicit start and stop events This kind of behavior is thought to generally rely on eventbased timing, which involves a clock-like neural process and an explicit internal representation of the time interval (Wing and Kristofferson, 1973). Other activities, such as the laboratory task of repetitive, continuous circle drawing, are characterized by smoothly produced movement and are thought to normally engage emergent timing in which timing can be maintained without reference to any explicit representation of the time interval (Turvey, 1977; Robertson et al, 1999). We predicted that musical training would have its largest effect on event-based timing
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