During joint action tasks, expectations for outcomes of one's own and other's actions are collectively monitored. Recent evidence suggests that trait empathy levels may also influence performance monitoring processes. The present study investigated how outcome expectation and empathy interact during a turn-taking piano duet task, using simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) recording. During the performances, one note in each player's part was altered in pitch to elicit the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and subsequent P3 complex. Pianists memorized and performed pieces containing either a similar or dissimilar sequence as their partner. For additional blocks, pianists also played both sequence types with an audio-only computer partner. The FRN and P3a were larger in response to self than other, while P3b occurred only in response to self, suggesting greater online monitoring of self- compared to other-produced actions during turn-taking joint action. P3a was larger when pianists played a similar sequence as their partner. Finally, as trait empathy level increased, FRN in response to self decreased. This association was absent for FRN in response to other. This may reflect that highly-empathetic musicians during joint performance could use a strategy to suppress exclusive focus on self-monitoring.

Recent work in interpersonal coordination has revealed that neural oscillations, occurring spontaneously in the human brain, are modulated during the sensory, motor, and cognitive processes involved in interpersonal interactions. In particular, alpha-band (8–12 Hz) activity, linked to attention in general, is related to coordination dynamics and empathy traits. Researchers have also identified an association between each individual’s attentiveness to their co-actor and the relative similarity in the co-actors’ roles, influencing their behavioral synchronization patterns. We employed music ensemble performance to evaluate patterns of behavioral and neural activity when roles between co-performers are systematically varied with complete counterbalancing. Specifically, we designed a piano duet task, with three types of co-actor dissimilarity, or asymmetry: (1) musical role (starting vs. joining), (2) musical task similarity (similar vs. dissimilar melodic parts), and (3) performer animacy (human-to-human vs. human-to-non-adaptive computer). We examined how the experience of these asymmetries in four initial musical phrases, alternatingly played by the co-performers, influenced the pianists’ performance of a subsequent unison phrase. Electroencephalography was recorded simultaneously from both performers while playing keyboards. We evaluated note-onset timing and alpha modulation around the unison phrase. We also investigated whether each individual’s self-reported empathy was related to behavioral and neural activity. Our findings revealed closer behavioral synchronization when pianists played with a human vs. computer partner, likely because the computer was non-adaptive. When performers played with a human partner, or a joining performer played with a computer partner, having a similar vs. dissimilar musical part did not have a significant effect on their alpha modulation immediately prior to unison. However, when starting performers played with a computer partner with a dissimilar vs. similar part there was significantly greater alpha synchronization. In other words, starting players attended less to the computer partner playing a similar accompaniment, operating in a solo-like mode. Moreover, this alpha difference based on melodic similarity was related to a difference in note-onset adaptivity, which was in turn correlated with performer trait empathy. Collectively our results extend previous findings by showing that musical ensemble performance gives rise to a socialized context whose lasting effects encompass attentiveness, perceptual-motor coordination, and empathy.

This article describes a series of multi-modal networked musical performance environments designed and implemented for concert presentation at the Torino-Milano (MiTo) Festival (Settembre musica, 2009, http://www. mitosettembremusica.it/en/home.html) between 2009 and 2010. Musical works, controlled by motion and gestures generated by in-engine performer avatars will be discussed with specific consideration given to the multi-modal presentation of mixed-reality works, combining both softwarebased and real-world traditional musical instruments.

No abstract