Individual differences and auditory-motor interactions in rhythm perception

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Perception of temporal patterns is fundamental to normal hearing, speech, motor control, and music. Certain types of pattern understanding are unique to humans, such as musical rhythm, in which we rapidly identify a key component: the 'beat'. Tapping or reproducing rhythms in which we can feel the beat is easier than reproducing irregular rhythms that have no beat (randomly presented notes, for example). Although responding to musical rhythm is universal, there is much we do not understand about rhythm processing. This project investigates three important unresolved issues in rhythm and beat perception: 1) How are an individual's rhythmic abilities influenced by basic timing abilities, auditory short-term memory capacity, sensitivity to the beat, and musical training? 2) At what stage of processing (learning, remembering, or producing) does the presence of a beat facilitate rhythm performance? For example, are rhythms with a beat remembered better simply because the beat structure enables better learning of or memory for the rhythm, or are they also easier to produce than irregular rhythms? 3) How does communication between auditory and motor brain areas change during beat perception, and how do differences in individual ability affect the activity of auditory and motor areas? The findings will have broad implications, including how music training affects basic auditory, language, and motor skills, and understanding how music may have therapeutic effects for patients with neurological movement disorders.