How Do You Feel the Rhythm: Dynamic Motor-Auditory Interactions Are Involved in the Imagination of Hierarchical Timing

Abstract

Predicting and organizing patterns of events is important for humans to survive in a dynamically changing world. The motor system has been proposed to be actively, and necessarily, engaged in not only the production but the perception of rhythm by organizing hierarchical timing that influences auditory responses. It is not yet well understood how the motor system interacts with the auditory system to perceive and maintain hierarchical structure in time. This study investigated the dynamic interaction between auditory and motor functional sources during the perception and imagination of musical meters. We pursued this using a novel method combining high-density EEG, EMG and motion capture with independent component analysis to separate motor and auditory activity during meter imagery while robustly controlling against covert movement. We demonstrated that endogenous brain activity in both auditory and motor functional sources reflects the imagination of binary and ternary meters in the absence of corresponding acoustic cues or overt movement at the meter rate. We found clear evidence for hypothesized motor-to-auditory information flow at the beat rate in all conditions, suggesting a role for top-down influence of the motor system on auditory processing of beat-based rhythms, and reflecting an auditory-motor system with tight reciprocal informational coupling. These findings align with and further extend a set of motor hypotheses from beat perception to hierarchical meter imagination, adding supporting evidence to active engagement of the motor system in auditory processing, which may more broadly speak to the neural mechanisms of temporal processing in other human cognitive functions.

Dopamine dysregulation in Parkinson's disease flattens the pleasurable urge to move to musical rhythms

“…The motor cortico-striatal circuit is part of a core timing network, along with prefrontal and cerebellar regions (Coull et al, 2011;Matell & F I G U R E 3 Correlation between severity of PD-related motor symptoms (UPDRS) and contrast estimates (medium À (low + high)/2) from the effect of rhythmic complexity on pleasure. Meck, 2004;Teghil et al, 2019) and is implicated in relative or beat-based timing in particular (Bengtsson et al, 2009;Breska & Ivry, 2018;Chen et al, 2008;Cheng et al, 2022;Cope et al, 2014;Grahn & Rowe, 2009Kasdan et al, 2022;Kung et al, 2013;Merchant et al, 2015;Schubotz et al, 2000;Teki et al, 2012;Thaut et al, 2008). This is consistent with a role of the motor system in driving temporal predictions in the context of auditory perception and attention more generally (Arnal, 2012;Morillon et al, 2015;Nobre & van Ede, 2018;Rimmele et al, 2018;Schubotz, 2007).…”

“…The flattened response to rhythmic complexity in PD supports a role of dopamine in the effects of rhythm on both the urge to move and pleasure. The motor cortico‐striatal circuit is part of a core timing network, along with prefrontal and cerebellar regions (Coull et al, 2011; Matell & Meck, 2004; Teghil et al, 2019) and is implicated in relative or beat‐based timing in particular (Bengtsson et al, 2009; Breska & Ivry, 2018; Chen et al, 2008; Cheng et al, 2022; Cope et al, 2014; Grahn & Rowe, 2009, 2013; Kasdan et al, 2022; Kung et al, 2013; Merchant et al, 2015; Schubotz et al, 2000; Teki et al, 2012; Thaut et al, 2008). This is consistent with a role of the motor system in driving temporal predictions in the context of auditory perception and attention more generally (Arnal, 2012; Morillon et al, 2015; Nobre & van Ede, 2018; Rimmele et al, 2018; Schubotz, 2007).…”

Amplitude modulation perceptually distinguishes music and speech

“…If music serves as an auditory cue for coordinating group behaviors, predictable temporal regularity at the optimal rate for human movements and audiomotor synchronization (1-2 Hz; MacDougall & Moore, 2005;Van Der Wel et al, 2009;Repp & Su, 2013) would be important. And in fact, motor brain networks are activated while processing musical rhythms and isochronous tone sequences (e.g., Cannon & Patel, 2021;Chang et al, 2019Cheng et al, 2022;Fujioka et al, 2012Fujioka et al, , 2015Levitin et al, 2018;Phillips-Silver & Trainor, 2005;Kotz et al, 2018;Morillon & Baillet, 2017). The AM rate of speech, analogously, has been attributed to the neurophysiological properties of the specialized auditory-motor oscillatory network for speech perception and production, as well as the associated biomechanics of the articulatory movements (Assaneo and Poeppel, 2018;Assaneo et al, 2021;Giraud & Poeppel, 2012;Poeppel & Assaneo, 2020).…”

Dopamine dysregulation in Parkinson’s disease flattens the pleasurable urge to move to musical rhythms

“…The flattened response to rhythmic complexity in PD patients supports a role of cortico-striatal dopamine in the effects of rhythm on both the urge to move and pleasure. The motor cortico-striatal loop is part of a core timing network, along with prefrontal and cerebellar regions [94][95][96] , and is implicated in in relative or beat-based timing in particular [9][10][11][12][13][14]56,[97][98][99][100][101][102] . This is consistent with a role of the motor system in driving temporal predictions in the context of auditory perception and attention more generally [103][104][105][106][107] .…”