Performance monitoring of self and other in a turn-taking piano duet: A dual-EEG study

Abstract

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.

Musical Role Asymmetries in Piano Duet Performance Influence Alpha-Band Neural Oscillation and Behavioral Synchronization

“…Nine pianists were removed from data analysis due to technical failures ( N = 3), high behavioral error rates ( N = 4), and excessive data artifacts ( N = 2). Compared to the participant data analyzed in Huberth et al (2019), we removed three additional pianists because of errors ( N = 2) and artifacts ( N = 1) that specifically affected our analyses. The four pianists with the high error rates comprised two pairs.…”

“…All alterations produced in-key pitches that were ± two scale notes from the printed score note. Further information about these manipulations and the associated analyses and findings are presented in Huberth et al (2019).…”

“…These practice trials proceeded directly into the 48 target trials for the block. As noted above, the location, direction and magnitude of altered pitch feedback within the first four measures of each trial was counterbalanced within each block (see Huberth et al, 2019 for details). We used the Max/MSP program to control sound and evaluate performance in each trial.…”

“…In the investigation presented here, we evaluated neural alpha and behavioral activity during the final unison measure of the duets to determine how the asymmetries in the preceding portion of the task served as a priming context and shaped the interaction of subsequent unison performance. The other investigation, described in Huberth et al (2019), was focused on performers’ neural responses to outcome expectation violations when altered pitch feedback was experimentally introduced within the first four measures of the turn-taking duet performances. Specifically, the authors compared the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3 complex within each individual’s EEG data in response to altered pitches in one’s own part vs. the co-performer’s part.…”

Electrical Brain Responses Reveal Sequential Constraints on Planning during Music Performance

“…Additional ERP components linked to action-related expectations are elicited when sensory feedback indicates that an action has resulted in an unexpected outcome. Frontally maximal feedback-related negativities (FRNs) are elicited roughly 150–250 ms following the unexpected outcome in music performance tasks [44,45,46,47], as well as during other tasks, such as reward prediction and monetary gambling tasks [48]. FRN amplitudes may be associated with the degree to which unexpected feedback violates a producer’s feedback-related expectations [49,50,51,52,53].…”