Individual differences and auditory-motor interactions in rhythm perception

对时间模式的感知是正常听觉、言语、运动控制和音乐的基础。某些类型的模式理解是人类所独有的，例如音乐节奏，我们可以快速识别其中的一个关键组成部分：“节拍”。敲击或再现我们能感觉到节拍的节奏比再现没有节拍的不规则节奏（例如随机出现的音符）更容易。虽然对音乐节奏的反应是普遍的，但我们对节奏处理还有很多不了解。本项目研究节奏和节拍感知中三个重要的未解决问题： 1)一个人的节奏能力如何受到基本计时能力、听觉短期记忆能力、对节拍的敏感性和音乐训练的影响？ 2)在哪一个处理阶段（学习、记忆或产生），节拍的存在促进了节奏的表现？例如，有节拍的节奏被更好地记住仅仅是因为节拍结构能够更好地学习或记忆节奏，还是它们比不规则的节奏更容易产生？ 3)在节拍感知过程中，听觉和运动脑区域之间的交流是如何变化的？个体能力的差异如何影响听觉和运动脑区域的活动？ 这些发现将产生广泛的影响，包括音乐训练如何影响基本的听觉、语言和运动技能，以及了解音乐如何对神经运动障碍患者产生治疗效果。

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.