A Dynamical, Radically Embodied, and Ecological Theory of Rhythm Development

Abstract

Musical rhythm abilities—the perception of and coordinated action to the rhythmic structure of music—undergo remarkable change over human development. In the current paper, we introduce a theoretical framework for modeling the development of musical rhythm. The framework, based on Neural Resonance Theory (NRT), explains rhythm development in terms of resonance and attunement, which are formalized using a general theory that includes non-linear resonance and Hebbian plasticity. First, we review the developmental literature on musical rhythm, highlighting several developmental processes related to rhythm perception and action. Next, we offer an exposition of Neural Resonance Theory and argue that elements of the theory are consistent with dynamical, radically embodied (i.e., non-representational) and ecological approaches to cognition and development. We then discuss how dynamical models, implemented as self-organizing networks of neural oscillations with Hebbian plasticity, predict key features of music development. We conclude by illustrating how the notions of dynamical embodiment, resonance, and attunement provide a conceptual language for characterizing musical rhythm development, and, when formalized in physiologically informed dynamical models, provide a theoretical framework for generating testable empirical predictions about musical rhythm development, such as the kinds of native and non-native rhythmic structures infants and children can learn, steady-state evoked potentials to native and non-native musical rhythms, and the effects of short-term (e.g., infant bouncing, infant music classes), long-term (e.g., perceptual narrowing to musical rhythm), and very-long term (e.g., music enculturation, musical training) learning on music perception-action.

Infants show enhanced neural responses to musical meter frequencies beyond low‐level features

“…Mechanistically, such processes have been described in neurodynamic models in terms of mode‐locking and resonance in coupled oscillators, which can reconstruct metric periodicities that are weak (or even completely absent) in the physical stimulus (Kim & Large, 2019; Large et al., 2015; Tichko et al., 2022). These models predict that mode‐locking is a fundamental emergent property of cortical dynamics, and hence should be present very early in development.…”

“…In adults, moving along a rhythmic pattern in a way that emphasizes a certain periodicity leads to an enhancement of that periodicity in EEG responses during subsequent listening (Chemin et al, 2014). Hence, there is evidence that multimodal exposure has the potential to shape the association between a rhythm and its metric interpretation already at an early age (see also Tichko et al, 2021Tichko et al, , 2022. Such associations may allow the brain to match a rhythm to a particular internal metric template, even when the rhythm acoustically lacks unambiguous periodic cues to the meter.…”

“…In fact, in weakly‐periodic music, meter perception requires endogenously generating periodicities beyond the acoustic features, a process that may rely on qualitatively and quantitatively different processes (Lenc et al., 2021). This ability may be supported by general perceptual mechanisms, such as neural resonance, which have been proposed to endogenously enhance the representation of metric periodicities as a result of connectivity and dynamics within auditory‐motor cortical networks (Large et al., 2015; Tichko et al., 2022). Alternatively, this capacity could be built upon inferential processes by which individuals learn to associate a specific rhythm with a specific metric interpretation through exposure (Hannon & Trehub, 2005b; London et al., 2017; van der Weij et al., 2017).…”

Why art? The role of arts in arts and health

“…Learning concerns acquisition of information. The nervous system learns how to resonate with environmental rhythms by means of plasticity (Tichko et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Perceptual learning can be exemplified with the “reversed goggles” experiment, where the subject learns to navigate although the inflow of visual information is reversed (Harris, 1965 ). Recently (Tichko et al, 2022 ) presented a framework demonstrating how an endogenous motor planning oscillatory network learns to perceive exogenous rhythmic patterns. The authors connect this learning to James Gibson's concept “attunement”, suggesting that the organism learns how to “tune in” to the external source.…”