Rhythmic Grouping Research Articles

Frontal lobe contributions to perception of rhythmic group structure. An EEG investigation.

Annals of the New York Academy of SciencesVolume 930, Issue 1 p. 414-417 Frontal Lobe Contributions to Perception of Rhythmic Group Structure An EEG Investigation PHILIP G. HARRIS, Corresponding Author PHILIP G. HARRIS Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, 400 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, AustraliaAddress for correspondence: Philip G. Harris, Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, 400 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, Australia. Voice: +61-3- 92148832; fax: +61-3-92145525; [email protected].Search for more papers by this authorRICHARD B. SILBERSTEIN, RICHARD B. SILBERSTEIN Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, 400 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, AustraliaSearch for more papers by this authorGEOFF E. NIELD, GEOFF E. NIELD Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, 400 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, AustraliaSearch for more papers by this authorANDREW PIPINGAS, ANDREW PIPINGAS Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, 400 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, AustraliaSearch for more papers by this author PHILIP G. HARRIS, Corresponding Author PHILIP G. HARRIS Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, 400 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, AustraliaAddress for correspondence: Philip G. Harris, Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, 400 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, Australia. Voice: +61-3- 92148832; fax: +61-3-92145525; [email protected].Search for more papers by this authorRICHARD B. SILBERSTEIN, RICHARD B. SILBERSTEIN Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, 400 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, AustraliaSearch for more papers by this authorGEOFF E. NIELD, GEOFF E. NIELD Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, 400 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, AustraliaSearch for more papers by this authorANDREW PIPINGAS, ANDREW PIPINGAS Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, 400 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122, Victoria, AustraliaSearch for more papers by this author First published: 25 January 2006 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05756.xCitations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume930, Issue1THE BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF MUSICJune 2001Pages 414-417 RelatedInformation

Function word reduction: The role of adjacent stress

Monosyllabic function words in speech are often reduced from their full citation forms. Researchers have shown that reduction is influenced by part of speech, predictability, prosody, and disfluency. This work isolates the role of an additional factor, preceding stress, in function word reduction by analyzing the realization of ‘‘for’’ in a highly controlled corpus. Five American English speakers read pairs of disyllabic words with initial or final stress (BOOty, bouTIQUE) in the frame ‘‘Please say [word] for me.’’ Two speakers show striking sensitivity to preceding stress, always producing strong–weak alternations, such that strong ‘‘for’’ follows a weak syllable and vice versa. The rimes in the strong versions average 90 ms while the weak are just 50 ms. The strong rimes consist of a clearly segmentable vowel plus /r/. In the weak, however, /r/ is not distinguishable in the acoustics as its own segment; rather, it influences the vowel F3 value. The other three speakers always realize ‘‘for’’ as weak, with an average duration of 39 ms after either stressed or unstressed syllables. Though limited, these results suggest that some speakers construct rhythmic groupings in speech production. Further work will determine whether similar effects are found in spontaneous speech.

Effects of Melodic Accents on Perception of Intensity

Melodically accented tones are perceived as having higher intensity. Subjects judged whether or not all of the tones in a sequence were of equal intensity. Melodic accents were created by pitch skips, and the intensity of the tones that followed the skips was manipulated. Introduction of the melodic accents reduced detection of lower intensity tones more than it reduced the detection of higher intensity tones. This effect did not change as a result of regular or irregular timing of the tones whose intensity was manipulated. Contrary to results from an earlier experiment in which listeners tried to detect variations in timing, placement of the melodic accents at regular intervals did not lead to poorer detection than did irregular placement of the melodic accents. It is concluded that perception of the gaps that separate rhythmic groups may have a different nature different from the perception of elements within groups.

Sources of timing variations in music performance: A psychological segmentation model

Systematic timing variations observed during music performance have usually been attributed to a musical expression hypothesis, related to relatively high-level processes, by which musicians emphasize certain events in order to transmit a particular musical interpretation to the listener. We propose, in addition, a perceptual hypothesis, related to lower-level processes, in which some observed variations would be related to functional constraints of the auditory system. (Some intervals would be heard shorter and thus played longer as a phenomenon of perceptual compensation.) We present a psychological model of temporal organization proposing two types of process (regularity extraction and segmentation into groups) operating parallel that allow listeners to parse complex auditory sequences such as music. Each type of process operates at both a low processing level (beat extraction and segmentation into basic groups) and a higher processing level (hierarchical metric organization and hierarchical segmentation organization). The analysis of musical and mechanical performances of Schumann's Traumerei demonstrated performance variations in relation to both hierarchical segmentation and hierarchical metric organizations, and to rhythmic groups. Variations were not systematically observed in relation to melodic groups. Regression analyses quantified these effects and demonstrated that hierarchical segmentation and rhythmic groups accounted for approximately 60% of the variance for musical and mechanical performances, leaving room for the description of other, as yet unidentified, processes. The percentage of variance explained by high-level processes (hierarchical segmentation) decreased from musical to mechanical performances, whereas the percentage of variance explained by lower-level processes (rhythmic groups) increased. We conclude that it is important to go beyond the traditional approach of describing performance variations in relation to musical structure and to adopt the approach of studying performance variations in relation to the psychological processes that allow the musician to perceive the musical structure. Finally, we adapt the psychological model of temporal organization to expressive timing: similar psychological processes operate at multiple hierarchical levels – namely, those of segmentation and grouping –, and these similar processes result in the same pattern of performance variations (an accelerando/ritardando profile).

Representing groove: Rhythmic structure in interactive music performance

The concept of ‘‘groove,’’ a musical element particularly operative in African-derived musics such as jazz, may be described as a collectively determined and relatively isochronous pulse that can be inferred from the interaction of a number of interlocking rhythmic groups. A powerful representation for musical rhythm as it appears in groove-oriented contexts has been developed. Implemented in the MAX music-programming environment, the representation encompasses pitch, accent, rhythmic deviations, tempo variation, note durations, and probabilistic processes. The design facilitates ‘‘bottom-up’’ combination techniques such as the construction of large musical objects by assembling small musical ‘‘cells’’ in series or parallel, and thus it allows improvisatory manipulation of simple rhythmic structures. The richness of control over many meaningful musical quantities distinguishes the representation from those in more common usage, such as music notation programs, sequencers, and drum machines. The implementation supports a variety of creative applications in improvised performance. Rather than attempting to make the system ‘‘sound human’’ by forcing it to simulate specific human activities, two alternative approaches are taken: the development of novel, sensitive control structures, and/or the emphasis on the system’s active role as a situated participant in an interactive musical environment.

Visualization of rhythm, time and metre

Developments in the theory of auditory processing of rhythmic signals have enabled the construction of a robust algorithm for recovery of rhythmic grouping structure. This algorithm appears to be effective for both speech and music signals. The theory upon which the algorithm was based was inspired by the theory of edge detection in vision. The output of the algorithm can be visualised in the form of a “rhythmogram”, examples of which are shown for a variety of speech signals. The relationship between rhythm, time perception and metre is discussed in the light of a recent “auditory-motor” theory of beat induction.

An Exploration of Children's Musical Compositions

In this study, we examined the musical compositions of children aged 7 and 9 years to discover the nature of childrens melodic and rhythmic representations of music. The compositions were performed using a computer program that did not require formal music training. Post hoc analysis revealed that the compositions could be divided into three melodic and rhythmic developmental stages that varied according to melodic contour, tonality, rhythmic grouping, and meter. Older children created more compositions at higher stages of complexity, and the more private musical training children had received, the more rhythmically complex their compositions were. The girls produced a greater percentage of compositions assigned to the highest stages than did the boys. Qualitative features of the subjects' approach to the task were noted during testing and were also found to vary with developmental stage. The number of parts inherent in the compositions was a nonpredictive variable in this analysis.

Extraction of cues or underlying harmonic structure: Which guides recognition of familiar melodies?

Abstract Six highly familiar melodies were submitted to three transformations: reduction and two rhythmic group transformations. These three transformations offered the opportunity to compare the role of various means of melody recognition: melodic contour, harmonic structure, local surface cues. If melody recognition relies on melodic contour, an original melody would be easier to recognise after rhythmic group transformation than after reduction; the rhythmic group transformation, but not the reduction, preserves the melodic contour. If melody recognition depends on the harmonic structure, an original melody would be easier to recognise after reduction than after a rhythmic group transformation; the reduction, but not the rhythmic group transformation, respects the underlying harmonic structure. The results of two experiments, one with children and one with adults, showed that recognition was better for rhythmic group transformation but only when local surface cues were preserved, a result that could ne...

The occurrence of synchrony in the North American fireflyPhotinus carolinus (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)

Synchronous flashing has been described for some Southeast Asian fireflies but has rarely been reported in North American fireflies. Our field observations indicated thatPhotinus carolinus flash synchronously. The flash pattern of individualP. carolinus was characterized by a burst of five to eight flashes over a period of approximately 4 s. These flash bursts were repeated about every 12 s. Groups of fireflies comprised individuals exhibiting this species-specific flash pattern. Remarkably, members of the group flashed synchronously: Flash bursts started and stopped at the same time and the flashes among individuals occurred at the same time as well. We used low-light level videography to examine this behavior in caged groups of (3 or 10) fireflies for synchronic flashing. The occurrence of concurrent rhythmic group flashing satisfies the criteria for synchrony as defined by Buck (1988). The intermittent nature of the bursts of flashes shown byP. carolinus makes this a discontinuous synchrony. The mechanisms underlying discontinuous synchrony are not known.

The Role of the Perception of Rhythmic Grouping in Musical Performance: Evidence from Motor-Skill Development in Piano Playing

Grouping plays a crucial role in the perception of metrically organized music, and it has been referred to as a key concept in increasing a subject's efficiency in sequential motor tasks that require a precise organization of movements in the time domain. But very little attention has been given to the crucial question of what kind of role perception of rhythmic grouping plays in the acquisition of motor skills. In the present investigation, we examined whether the perception of the rhythmic grouping organization of music notation has a direct effect on the formation of motor patterns in piano playing. Pianists were asked to sightread a piece with and without grouping instructions. Movement recordings were made within a three-dimensional trajectory by using light-emitting diodes and infrared camera systems combined with Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) technology. Findings indicate that there was a marked change in motor performance when subjects were instructed to perceive the notation in a particular mode of metered pulse-beat grouping. It was concluded that how one perceives a music score—by single notes, articulated motivic patterns, or by the metered pulse-beat grouping—is reflected in the organization of motor patterns.

The auditory “Primal Sketch”: A multiscale model of rhythmic grouping

Abstract In this paper a new theory of rhythmic grouping is proposed which is based on a multitime scale decomposition of the auditory nerve response. The theory has been inspired by the use of multiscale analysis in the theory of vision as proposed by Marr. It is shown how this multiscale mechanism can be interpreted as a form of echoic memory. A product of the theory is a representation of the rhythmic grouping a sequence of events referred to as a rhythmogram. As well as acting as a perceptual representation the rhythmogram is a powerful tool for the analysis of a range of rhythmic signals including music and speech.

Gestural beats: The rhythm hypothesis

Gestural beats are typically small up and down or back and forth flicks of one or both hands. It has been assumed by researchers hypothesizing about the interaction of beats and speech that beats coincide with verbal stress. Microanalysis shows that gestural beats are organized in rhythmic patterns and do not necessarily cooccur with stressed syllables as previously assumed. Tone group nuclei appear to function as gestational points for rhythmic groups, which supports the theory that thinking utilizes words as cognitive tools and provides evidence that in some cases entire tone units are formed in advance. Evidence of an interpersonal gestural rhythm is also presented.

Toward a theory of rhythm in french poetry: Computer assisted recognition of rhythmic groups in traditional isometrical alexandrines

Benoit de Cornulier's writings on French poetry concentrate on metrical boundaries, or caesura; however, the the criteria upon which he bases his analyses are useful in studying rhythm, or the relationship between syllables within the alexandrine's twohemistiches. This study focuses on three aspects of rhythm in French poetry: the definition of rhythm following Cornulier; the development of a method using the computer to detect rhythmic patterns in traditional isometrical alexandrines; the results of such a study when applied to three classical seventeenth-century plays which are composed of isometrical alexandrines (Corneille'sPolyeucte, Racine'sPhedre, and Moliere'sLe Tartuffe).

Rhythm and compression in Caribbean Spanish

The goal of this research was the observation of temporal relations and degrees of compression in spontaneous speech. Recorded materials of casual speech from one female and one male speaker of a dialect of Panamanian Spanish were studied. Acoustic measurements were made by examining phonetic segments, syllables, and rhythmic groups embedded in intonational phrases through the use of digital spectrograms and oscillographic traces. Results indicate low degrees of temporal compression; rhythmic group duration shows significant linear correlation with rhythmic group size. In addition, rhythmic groups in intonational phrase preboundary position are subject to local deceleration, which affects both the penultimate stressed syllable and the following unstressed final syllable. Both speakers reveal a positive relation between the duration of the stressed and unstressed syllables. These findings suggest that casual speech style in this dialect has both syllable-timing and a locally bound deceleration. [Work supported by SSHRCC.]

Accent Structures in Music Performance

Perceptual studies suggest that the segmentation of a musical sequence is influenced by three accent structures: rhythmic grouping, melodic, and metric accent structures. We investigate whether performers emphasize these types of accents with systematic performance variations (intensity, interonset timing, and articulation). In three experiments, skilled pianists performed sequences of various musical complexities: simple sequences containing only one accent structure (Experiment 1), more complex sequences containing coinciding or conflicting accent structures (Experiment 2), and a concert pianist's performance of a sonata containing coinciding and conflicting accent structures (Experiment 3). In all three musical contexts, similar systematic performance variations were observed in relation to each type of accent. Variations corresponding to rhythmic grouping accents were most consistent across musical contexts and dominated when the accent structures conflicted. These findings suggest perceptual correlates for the accent structures in music performance that may facilitate listeners' segmentation of musical sequences.

Rod outer segment disk shedding in rats with lesions of the suprachiasmatic nucleus

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus constitutes a major pacemaker for circadian rhythms in mammals. Rod outer segment (ROS) disk shedding follows a circadian rhythm that persists after pre-chiasmatic optic nerve section (ONS) (Teirstein et al., Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., 19 (1980) 1268–1273), suggesting local oscillatory control. However, entrainment and phase-shifting to light-dark (LD) cycles are disrupted, suggesting that central efferent signals are involved in phase control. In the present experiment, lesions of the SCN were administered to 45 rats, resulting in complete behavioral arrhythmicity in 24 rats, dampened rhythmicity in 11 rats and robust rhythms in 10 rats. The extent of lesions was verified by histological and immunocytochemical methods. After screening for presence or absence of activity rhythms, rats were assigned to separate groups for ROS disk shedding analysis at four phases relative to the (LD) 12:12 cycle: 1.5 h after light onset, 1.5 h after dark onset, and at corresponding phases immediately upon release into 24 h of constant darkness. The disk shedding pattern, with relatively high phagosome numbers during the early light phase and low numbers at nighttime, was similar for behaviorally arrhythmic, dampened and rhythmic groups. These data indicate an independence of the disk shedding rhythm from possible SCN humoral or neuronal efferent influences.

Perceptual and performed accents in musical sequences

Some events in musical sequences are not performed as indicated in the score, but rather undergo systematic timing and intensity variations (played louder/softer and longer/shorter). Traditionally, these performance variations are considered to be related to a musician’s desire to transmit a particular musical interpretation to the listener. We suggest an alternative perceptual explanation that considers that the performance variations may result from constraints of the auditory system, with some events played louder and/or longer because they are heard softer and/or shorter. Two experiments are presented to distinguish between these two explanations. Subjects heard short musical sequences containing rhythmic grouping and melodic accents. Their task was to detect and identify the position of one event that was either slightly longer/shorter (Experiment 1) or louder/softer (Experiment 2) than other events in the sequence. Sensitivity to intensity changes was unaffected by the physical characteristics of the events in the sequences, but sensitivity to duration changes varied in relation to both rhythmic grouping and melodic accents. Thus, these results provide support for the perceptual hypothesis in the case of timing changes, but not for intensity changes.

Sleep and heart rate circadian rhythm in depression: the necessity to separate.

In order to determine whether a decrease in the amplitude of heart rate circadian rhythm (HRCR) could represent a chronobiological marker of depression and to answer the question of the possible role of this alteration in the reduction of rapid eye movement sleep latency (REM latency) observed in depression, 22 major depressed patients (DSM III R, Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale) and 11 healthy volunteers entered this study, which included the simultaneous recordings of sleep and heart rate (HR) during two consecutive 24-h periods. After a smoothing procedure, the HR data, obtained from a portable device providing mean HR/min, were computed with the single cosinor method for the classical circadian parameters. We also determined the cosinor fitting index (CFI = percentage to fit). When studied as a single group and compared to the control group, the depressed patients, who had difficulties in sleep initiation and whose REM latencies were within normal limits, were characterized by a dampening of the amplitude HRCR and of the day-night HR difference. This was linked to a lesser increase of HR during the day and a reduced decrease at night. No significant phase modification of HRCR was observed in this group of depressives. In a second step, the depressives were divided into a depressed arrhythmic group (DAG, CFI < 50%, 11 patients) and a depressed rhythmic group (DRG, CFI > 50%, 11 patients) who did not differ on MADRS scores. Even though the amplitude of HRCR was reduced in the DAG only, with HR higher at night and lower during the daytime than for controls, both DAG and DRG significantly differed from controls on those items related to sleep induction and maintenance. In the DAG only was there a tendency toward a reduction of total sleep time and REM sleep time while REM latency was normal. This finding suggests that sleep problems are not responsible for the differences in HRCR parameters between the two depressed groups. These differences in HR and sleep parameters between two groups of similarly depressed patients also suggest that a short REM latency does not systematically imply a disruption of all circadian clocks.

Topical content in Mozart's keyboard sonatas

I shall consider here the role of topical content in the rhetoric of Classic music, using Mozart's keyboard sonatas by way of illustration. The term 'topic' here signifies a subject to be incorporated in a discourse. A topic can be a style, a type, a figure, a process or a plan of action. Topics can be intra-musical-elements of the language of music-or extra-musical taken from other media of expression. The connection between these two aspects of topical content has a long history. Music, in its relationship to the temporal artspoetry, drama and choreography-has been something of a chameleon, if not an actual parasite. Throughout its history Western music has repeatedly been taken up by the language and theatrical arts as a means of intensification, to elevate and sustain the effect of the word or gesture. But as music joins with word or gesture it gradually incorporates its own syntax, its idiomatic elaborations to the point that the word or gesture is absorbed into the play of musical rhetoric, especially in extensions and elaborations. The actual presence of the 'host' (that is, the word or gesture) disappears, but its configuration remains in the contour and the form of the music-a process comparable to the shape that is given to the finished jewel in the lost wax process. This back-and-forth process, in which music is borrowed and then takes over, finally to be simplified once again when it becomes too elaborate, has taken place a number of times-in plainsong, in medieval polyphony, in the Renaissance motet and madrigal, and in Italian opera of the 18th and 19th centuries. These processes bespeak apt connections between music and other media of expression, both in syntactic ways and in the sense of what is being communicated. The influences work in both directions-from the image, gesture or idea to musical syntax and vice versa. That is, musical syntax can enhance the word or gesture; on the other hand, the suggestion or the implication of the image, word or gesture can give colour and enriched content to musical syntax. The syntactical make-up of Classic music lends itself aptly to the interplay of musical processes and topical references. In the Classic style, the precise trim of cadential formulas, rhythmic groupings, clear articulations, transparent textures and orderly key schemes allow a composer to etch sharply with figures that are neatly and closely spaced, to spin out a rhetoric that is essentially comic and witty in its underlying tone. This attitude is embodied particularly in the rapid shifts of topic, of affective stance, that are so often heard in late 18thcentury music. Wilhelm Fischer characterized Classic music as incorporating contrast on the smallest scale.' A biting comment on an aria of Paisiello in 1778 is addressed to the prevailing Italian penchant for mixing topics. The writer, Goudar, says:

Perceptual and performed accents in musical sequences.

Some events in musical sequences are perceived as accented due to changes in physical characteristics of events. These perceptual accents are also often performed with additional emphasis (played louder and/or longer). These performance variations could result from a musician’s desire to add musical expression to important events (accents are played louder and/or longer because it sounds more musical), or they may result from psychophysical constraints of the human auditory system (accents are played louder and/or longer because they are heard softer and/or shorter). Two psychophysical experiments are presented that distinguish between these two explanations. Subjects heard short musical sequences containing rhythmic grouping and melodic accents. Their task was to detect and identify the position of one event, which was either slightly longer (or shorter) or louder (or softer) than other events in the sequence. The detection of intensity variations was unaffected by the presence of accents in the sequences, but the detection of timing variations varied in relation to both rhythmic grouping and melodic accents. These results provide support for the independent processing of timing and other physical characteristics of acoustic events, and they suggest that not all systematic variations observed in music performance are perceived by performer and listener even though they may be above threshold levels described for single auditory events.