Evidence for multimodal learning of the musical beat through short-term audiovisual training

Details

Supervisors

Nozaradan, Sylvie ; Guérin, Ségolène

Faculty

Faculté des sciences de la motricité

Degree label

Master [60] en kinésithérapie et réadaptation

Abstract

enIntroduction: Music makes us move. To coordinate movements with rhythmic inputs, an internal representation of time is required. Interpretation of a specific rhythm input is highly flexible and may depend on a multitude of factors. Body movement is known to enhance rhythm perception. But it is still unclear which component of movement is the principal actor of this enhancement. Method: Forty participants took part in an audio-visual training of a syncopated rhythm which could be interpreted in three-beat or four-beat. Half of the participant took part in a three-beat training while the other half took part in a four-beat training. We used electroencephalography to capture the neural responses, and we asked participants to clap in their hands to capture the behavioral responses. We then used statistical methods to evaluate the effect of the training, of training condition and the interaction between both. Results: Results showed no significant results of the neural response in any of the component analyzed. However, the behavioral data showed a significant effect of session after the audiovisual-training session (p = .008). Conclusion: We hypothesize that the effect of the behavioral response could be linked to another brain area such as motor or associative area instead of the auditory cortex.