Melodic Accent as an Emergent Property of Tonal Motion

In a previous continuation tapping study (Ammirante, Thompson, & Russo, in press), each tap triggered a discrete tone in a sequence randomly varying in pitch height and contour. Although participants were instructed to ignore the tones, pitch distance and pitch contour influenced intertap interval (ITI) and tap velocity (TV). The current study replicated these findings with original melodies. Results were interpreted as an effect of apparent tonal motion, with deviation in ITI and TV mirroring implied tonal acceleration. Due to overlapping perceptual and motor representations, participants may have failed to disambiguate acceleration implied by tonal motion from the acceleration of their finger trajectory. Dissociative effects of pitch distance on ITI and pitch contour on TV implied that pitch distance influences the initial finger extension while pitch contour influences later finger flexion. Acceleration in ITI and TV were also both correlated with melodic accent strength values from perceptual data (Thomassen, 1982), suggesting that perception and production of melodic accent emerge from shared action associations

The Role of Haptic Cues in Musical Instrument Quality Perception

We draw from recent research in violin quality evaluation and piano performance to examine whether the vibrotactile sensation felt when playing a musical instrument can have a perceptual effect on its judged quality from the perspective of the musician. Because of their respective sound production mechanisms, the violin and the piano offer unique example cases and diverse scenarios to study tactile aspects of musical interaction. Both violinists and pianists experience rich haptic feedback, but the former experience vibrations at more bodily parts than the latter. We observe that the vibrotactile component of the haptic feedback during playing, both for the violin and the piano, provides an important part of the integrated sensory information that the musician experiences when interacting with the instrument. In particular, the most recent studies illustrate that vibrations felt at the fingertips (left hand only for the violinist) can lead to an increase in perceived sound loudness and richness, suggesting the potential for more research in this direction

Towards a Vocal Constraints Model of Melodic Expectancy: Evidence from Two Listening Experiments

Where does a listener's anticipation of the next note in an unfamiliar melody come from? One view is that expectancies reflect innate grouping biases; another is that expectancies reflect statistical learning through previous musical exposure. Listening experiments support both views but in limited contexts, e.g., using only instrumental renditions of melodies. Here we report replications of two previous experiments, but with additional manipulations of timbre (instrumental vs. sung renditions) and register (modal vs. upper). Following a proposal that melodic expectancy is vocally constrained, we predicted that sung renditions would encourage an expectation that the next tone will be a “singable” one, operationalized here as one having an absolute pitch height that falls within the modal register. Listeners heard melodic fragments and gave goodness-of-fit ratings on the final tone (Experiment 1) or rated how certain they were about what the next note would be (Experiment 2). Ratings in the instrumental conditions were consistent with the original findings, but differed significantly from ratings in the sung conditions, which were more consistent with the vocal constraints model. We discuss how a vocal constraints model could be extended to include expectations about duration and tonality

Continuation tapping to triggered melodies : motor resonance effects of melodic motion

Common Coding theory predicts that perceived action should resonate in produced action to which it bears some resemblance. Here we show that the qualities of motion commonly attributed to melodies are instantiated in motor plans that control timed movements. Participants attempted to tap a steady beat. Each tap triggered a sounded tone, and successive tones were systematically varied in pitch to form short melodies. Tapping behavior was monitored with motion capture. Although instructed to ignore them, triggered tones systematically affected timing and finger movement. When slower melodic motion was implied by a contour change or a smaller pitch displacement, the interval-tap interval (ITI) was longer. When faster melodic motion was implied by a preserved pitch contour or a larger pitch displacement, ITI was shorter. Kinematic recordings suggested that ITI Error arose from an initial failure to disambiguate perception (i.e., velocity implied by melodic motion) from action (i.e., finger velocity [FV]). Early in the tap trajectory, slower FV was associated with longer ITI and faster FV was associated with shorter ITI. These associations were reversed near mid-trajectory, suggesting a transition from execution of motor planning to online control (Glover et al. in Exp Brain Res 154:103-108, 2004).10 page(s

Musical thought

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Tapping to pitched auditory feedback tones: Effects of pitch contour and interval size on intertap-interval and tap force

Researchers conducted a study to replicate the effect of pitch contour on tempo perception in a finger-tapping task. The researchers predicted that participants in the study responded to task-irrelevant pitch changes by shortening intertap-intervals (ITI) initiated by contour-preserving feedback tones relative to ITIs initiated by contour-violating tones. Tap force was analyzed along with ITI to test a strong version of the imputed velocity hypothesis. The imputed velocity hypothesis stated that velocity implied by pitch contour influenced the velocity of the participants' taps. The magnitude of frequency separation between successive tones was varied between trials. Participants heard feedback through headphones and tapped the highest key on a MIDI keyboard with their index finger. They were instructed to maintain contact between their fingertip and the key to give an equal weight to all taps.2 page(s

Development of timing skills

Music is intimately connected with the experience of rhythmic movement. This unique relation between music and movement depends on a complex set of timing skills that are developed throughout childhood. However, extraordinary cases of rhythmic prodigies seem to challenge our understanding of the normal course of motor development. This chapter examines the existing literature on timing skills in order to identify some milestones in the development of timing skills that are essential for the production of accurate rhythmic movements. We consider the importance of formal music training and weekly practice for the development of timing skills involved in discrete and continuous rhythmic movements, and we describe a preliminary study in which we compare the timing skills of a prodigy musician with those of age-matched musicians and nonmusicians.27 page(s

Ideomotor effects of pitch on continuation tapping

The ideomotor principle predicts that perception will modulate action where overlap exists between perceptual and motor representations of action. This effect is demonstrated with auditory stimuli. Previous perceptual evidence suggests that pitch contour and pitch distance in tone sequences may elicit tonal motion effects consistent with listeners' implicit awareness of the lawful dynamics of locomotive bodies. To examine modulating effects of perception on action, participants in a continuation tapping task produced a steady tempo. Auditory tones were triggered by each tap. Pitch contour randomly and persistently varied within trials. Pitch distance between successive tones varied between trials. Although participants were instructed to ignore them, tones systematically affected finger dynamics and timing. Where pitch contour implied positive acceleration, the following tap and the intertap interval (ITI) that it completed were faster. Where pitch contour implied negative acceleration, the following tap and the ITI that it completed were slower. Tempo was faster with greater pitch distance. Musical training did not predict the magnitude of these effects. There were no generalized effects on timing variability. Pitch contour findings demonstrate how tonal motion may elicit the spontaneous production of accents found in expressive music performance. © 2010 The Experimental Psychology Society.13 page(s

Human mirror neuron system responsivity to unimodal and multimodal presentations of action

This study aims to clarify unresolved questions from two earlier studies (McGarry et al., 2012; Kaplan & Iacoboni, 2007) on human mirror neuron system (hMNS) responsivity to multimodal presentations of actions. These questions are: (1) whether the two frontal areas originally identified by Kaplan and Iacoboni (ventral premotor cortex [vPMC] and inferior frontal gyrus [IFG]) are both part of the hMNS (i.e., do they respond to execution as well as observation), (2) whether both areas yield effects of biologicalness (biological, control) and modality (audio, visual, audiovisual), and (3) whether the vPMC is preferentially responsive to multimodal input. To resolve these questions about the hMNS, we replicated and extended McGarry et al.’s electroencephalography (EEG) study, while incorporating advanced source localization methods. Participants were asked to execute movements (ripping paper) as well as observe those movements across the same three modalities (audio, visual, and audiovisual), all while 64-channel EEG data was recorded. Two frontal sources consistent with those identified in prior studies showed mu event-related desynchronization (mu-ERD) under execution and observation conditions. These sources also showed a greater response to biological movement than to control stimuli as well as a distinct visual advantage, with greater responsivity to visual and audiovisual compared to audio conditions. Exploratory analyses of mu-ERD in the vPMC under visual and audiovisual observation conditions suggests that the hMNS tracks the magnitude of visual movement over time