Rhythmic Prototypes Across Cultures

Abstract

It has long been assumed that rhythm cognition builds on perceptual categories tied to prototypes defined by small-integer ratios, such as 1:1 and 2:1. This study aims to evaluate the relative contributions of both generic constraints and selected cultural particularities in shaping rhythmic prototypes. We experimentally tested musicians’ synchronization (finger tapping) with simple periodic rhythms at two different tempi with participants in Mali, Bulgaria, and Germany. We found support both for the classic assumption that 1:1 and 2:1 prototypes are widespread across cultures and for culture-dependent prototypes characterized by more complex ratios such as 3:2 and 4:3. Our findings suggest that music-cultural environments specify links between music performance patterns and perceptual prototypes.

Modeling infants’ perceptual narrowing to musical rhythms: neural oscillation and Hebbian plasticity

“…Other work suggests that music development may also undergo a process of perceptual narrowing . In particular, two infant studies, conducted by Hannon and Trehub, reported the first evidence of perceptual narrowing to musical rhythm.…”

“…[19][20][21] Other work suggests that music development may also undergo a process of perceptual narrowing. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] In particular, two infant studies, conducted by Hannon and Trehub, 23,24 reported the first evidence of perceptual narrowing to musical rhythm. In these studies, the authors tested whether younger and doi: 10.1111/nyas.14050 older Western infants could detect structural violations to the meter of native and nonnative musical rhythms.…”

Genome-wide association study of musical beat synchronization demonstrates high polygenicity

“…The predictive temporal mechanisms afforded by beat structure enhance general perceptual and learning processes in music, including melody perception and production, singing, and joint music-making 3,6 . Recent work showed that some features of rhythm perception and production (e.g., categorical rhythm perception) varies across listeners from different cultures 14,[20][21][22] , the same studies showed considerable consistencies across cultures for other features (for example preference for beat-based isochrony). Beat synchronization, and musicality in general, appear to have broad implications for society by supporting pro-social behavior 11,23 and well-being 24 .…”

“…Rhythmic musical interactions in young children and across the lifespan 13 are structured around the percept of a stable periodic pulse, termed the "beat" in Western music and also present in music of other cultures 1,14 (though different musical cultures varies in the way they incorporate beats in musical structure; see 15,16 ). While music in general and rhythmic structures in particular significantly vary from one culture to another [16][17][18] , there is preliminary evidence that hierarchical beat structure of most music is robust to cultural transmission 2 and indeed common in many types of music 1 .…”

Motor and Predictive Processes in Auditory Beat and Rhythm Perception

“…These regularities, or expectancies, generated by music have even been proposed as the properties which underlie emotional experience in music (Meyer, 1956;Huron, 2008;Juslin and Västfjäll, 2008). Cross-cultural perceptual priors may exist for some aspects of rhythm perception and production (Jacoby and McDermott, 2017), while other aspects are shaped by encluturation within a certain musical niche (Cameron et al, 2015;van der Weij et al, 2017;Polak et al, 2018). In particular, the experience of musical groove, that property of 'wanting to move' to the music, is proposed to be related to the balance between prediction and prediction errors generated by rhythmic properties of the music (Janata et al, 2012;Matthews et al, 2019Matthews et al, , 2020.…”