Reduced Timing Variability during Bimanual Coupling: A Role for Sensory Information

2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Knut Drewing ◽  
Gisa Aschersleben
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Feedback ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Timing Variability ◽  
Bimanual Coupling ◽  
Hand Tapping ◽  
Bimanual Tapping ◽  
Action Timing ◽  
Action Goals

On a repetitive tapping task, the within-hand variability of intertap intervals is reduced when participants tap with two hands as compared to one-hand tapping. Because this bimanual advantage can be attributed to timer variance (Wing—Kristofferson model, 1973a, b), separate timers have been proposed for each hand, whose outputs are then averaged (Helmuth & Ivry, 1996). An alternative notion is that action timing is based on its sensory reafferences (Aschersleben & Prinz, 1995; Prinz, 1990). The bimanual advantage is then due to increased sensory reafference. We studied bimanual tapping with the continuation paradigm. Participants first synchronized their taps with a metronome and then continued without the pacing signal. Experiment 1 replicated the bimanual advantage. Experiment 2 examined the influence of additional sensory reafferences. Results showed a reduction of timer variance for both uni- and bimanual tapping when auditory feedback was added to each tap. Experiment 3 showed that the bimanual advantage decreased when auditory feedback was removed from taps with the left hand. Results indicate that the sensory reafferences of both hands are used and integrated into timing. This is consistent with the assumption that the bimanual advantage is at least partly due to the increase in sensory reafference. A reformulation of the Wing—Kristofferson model is proposed to explain these results, in which the timer provides action goals in terms of sensory reafferences.

scholarly journals Bimanual coupling effect during a proprioceptive stimulation

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Biggio ◽  
A. Bisio ◽  
F. Garbarini ◽  
Marco Bove
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Coupling Effect ◽  
Line Drawing ◽  
Proprioceptive Information ◽  
Muscle Vibration ◽  
Imagery Condition ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Contralateral Hand ◽  
Bimanual Coupling ◽  
The Right

AbstractCircle-line drawing paradigm is used to study bimanual coupling. In the standard paradigm, subjects are asked to draw circles with one hand and lines with the other hand; the influence of the concomitant tasks results in two “elliptical” figures. Here we tested whether proprioceptive information evoked by muscle vibration inducing a proprioceptive illusion (PI) of movement at central level, was able to affect the contralateral hand drawing circles or lines. A multisite 80 Hz-muscle vibration paradigm was used to induce the illusion of circle- and line-drawing on the right hand of 15 healthy participants. During muscle vibration, subjects had to draw a congruent or an incongruent figure with the left hand. The ovalization induced by PI was compared with Real and Motor Imagery conditions, which already have proved to induce bimanual coupling. We showed that the ovalization of a perceived circle over a line drawing during PI was comparable to that observed in Real and Motor Imagery condition. This finding indicates that PI can induce bimanual coupling, and proprioceptive information can influence the motor programs of the contralateral hand.

scholarly journals Beat Patterns Determine Inter-Hand Differences in Synchronization Error in a Bimanual Coordination Tapping Task

i-Perception ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 204166952110538
Author(s):  
Yuka Saito ◽  
Tomoki Maezawa ◽  
Jun I. Kawahara
Keyword(s):  
Bimanual Coordination ◽  
Synchronization Error ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Synchronization Errors ◽  
Right Hand ◽  
Beat Pattern ◽  
Timing System ◽  
Apparent Inconsistency ◽  
The Right ◽  
Bimanual Tapping

A previous study reported the unique finding that people tapping a beat pattern with the right hand produce larger negative synchronization error than when tapping with the left hand or other effectors, in contrast to previous studies that have shown that the hands tap patterns simultaneously without any synchronization errors. We examined whether the inter-hand difference in synchronization error occurred due to handedness or to a specificity of the beat pattern employed in that study. Two experiments manipulated the hand–beat assignments. A comparison between the identical beat to the pacing signal and a beat with a longer interval excluded the handedness hypothesis and demonstrated that beat patterns with relatively shorter intervals were tapped earlier (Experiment 1). These synchronization errors were not local but occurred consistently throughout the beat patterns. Experiment 2 excluded alternative explanations. These results indicate that the apparent inconsistency in previous studies was due to the specificity of the beat patterns, suggesting that a beat pattern with a relatively shorter interval between hands is tapped earlier than beats with longer intervals. Our finding that the bimanual tapping of different beat patterns produced different synchronization errors suggests that the notion of a central timing system may need to be revised.

Efficacy of Auditory versus Motor Learning for Skilled and Novice Performers

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 1657-1682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel M. Brown ◽  
Virginia B. Penhune
Keyword(s):  
Motor Learning ◽  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Auditory Feedback ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Learning Condition ◽  
Pitch Accuracy ◽  
Auditory Learning ◽  
Learning Conditions

Humans must learn a variety of sensorimotor skills, yet the relative contributions of sensory and motor information to skill acquisition remain unclear. Here we compare the behavioral and neural contributions of perceptual learning to that of motor learning, and we test whether these contributions depend on the expertise of the learner. Pianists and nonmusicians learned to perform novel melodies on a piano during fMRI scanning in four learning conditions: listening (auditory learning), performing without auditory feedback (motor learning), performing with auditory feedback (auditory–motor learning), or observing visual cues without performing or listening (cue-only learning). Visual cues were present in every learning condition and consisted of musical notation for pianists and spatial cues for nonmusicians. Melodies were performed from memory with no visual cues and with auditory feedback (recall) five times during learning. Pianists showed greater improvements in pitch and rhythm accuracy at recall during auditory learning compared with motor learning. Nonmusicians demonstrated greater rhythm improvements at recall during auditory learning compared with all other learning conditions. Pianists showed greater primary motor response at recall during auditory learning compared with motor learning, and response in this region during auditory learning correlated with pitch accuracy at recall and with auditory–premotor network response during auditory learning. Nonmusicians showed greater inferior parietal response during auditory compared with auditory–motor learning, and response in this region correlated with pitch accuracy at recall. Results suggest an advantage for perceptual learning compared with motor learning that is both general and expertise-dependent. This advantage is hypothesized to depend on feedforward motor control systems that can be used during learning to transform sensory information into motor production.

scholarly journals Chance, long tails, and inference in a non-Gaussian, Bayesian theory of vocal learning in songbirds

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (36) ◽  
pp. E8538-E8546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baohua Zhou ◽  
David Hofmann ◽  
Itai Pinkoviezky ◽  
Samuel J. Sober ◽  
Ilya Nemenman
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Feedback ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Motor Command ◽  
Sensorimotor Learning ◽  
Behavioral Observations ◽  
Long Tails ◽  
The Face ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Non Gaussian

Traditional theories of sensorimotor learning posit that animals use sensory error signals to find the optimal motor command in the face of Gaussian sensory and motor noise. However, most such theories cannot explain common behavioral observations, for example, that smaller sensory errors are more readily corrected than larger errors and large abrupt (but not gradually introduced) errors lead to weak learning. Here, we propose a theory of sensorimotor learning that explains these observations. The theory posits that the animal controls an entire probability distribution of motor commands rather than trying to produce a single optimal command and that learning arises via Bayesian inference when new sensory information becomes available. We test this theory using data from a songbird, the Bengalese finch, that is adapting the pitch (fundamental frequency) of its song following perturbations of auditory feedback using miniature headphones. We observe the distribution of the sung pitches to have long, non-Gaussian tails, which, within our theory, explains the observed dynamics of learning. Further, the theory makes surprising predictions about the dynamics of the shape of the pitch distribution, which we confirm experimentally.

Reduced Timing Variability in Patients with Unilateral Cerebellar Lesions during Bimanual Movements

1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. A. Franz ◽  
R. B. Ivry ◽  
L. L. Helmuth
Keyword(s):  
Process Model ◽  
Ipsilateral Side ◽  
Bimanual Movements ◽  
Timing Variability ◽  
Temporal Aspects ◽  
Coupling Constraints ◽  
Temporal Coupling ◽  
Cerebellar Lesions ◽  
Bimanual Tapping

Timing variability on a repetitive tapping task was studied in subjects with unilateral cerebellar lesions. During unimanual tapping, within-hand variability was larger when tapping with the ipsilesional hand in comparison to tapping with the contralesional hand. However, variability in the impaired hand was greatly reduced when subjects tapped with two hands together. The improvement in within-hand variability during bimanual tapping was associated with a reduction in central variability rather than response implementation variability according to the two-process model of Wing and Kristofferson (1973). It is proposed that (1) each half of the cerebellum independently regulates the temporal aspects of movements on the ipsilateral side and (2) temporal coupling constraints require these separate signals to be integrated prior to response implementation for bimanual movements.

scholarly journals An Associational Model of Birdsong Sensorimotor Learning I. Efference Copy and the Learning of Song Syllables

2000 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 1204-1223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd W. Troyer ◽  
Allison J. Doupe
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Feedback ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Functional Anatomy ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Efference Copy ◽  
Song Learning ◽  
Sensorimotor Learning ◽  
Feedback Signal ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Motor Signals

Birdsong learning provides an ideal model system for studying temporally complex motor behavior. Guided by the well-characterized functional anatomy of the song system, we have constructed a computational model of the sensorimotor phase of song learning. Our model uses simple Hebbian and reinforcement learning rules and demonstrates the plausibility of a detailed set of hypotheses concerning sensory-motor interactions during song learning. The model focuses on the motor nuclei HVc and robust nucleus of the archistriatum (RA) of zebra finches and incorporates the long-standing hypothesis that a series of song nuclei, the Anterior Forebrain Pathway (AFP), plays an important role in comparing the bird's own vocalizations with a previously memorized song, or “template.” This “AFP comparison hypothesis” is challenged by the significant delay that would be experienced by presumptive auditory feedback signals processed in the AFP. We propose that the AFP does not directly evaluate auditory feedback, but instead, receives an internally generated prediction of the feedback signal corresponding to each vocal gesture, or song “syllable.” This prediction, or “efference copy,” is learned in HVc by associating premotor activity in RA-projecting HVc neurons with the resulting auditory feedback registered within AFP-projecting HVc neurons. We also demonstrate how negative feedback “adaptation” can be used to separate sensory and motor signals within HVc. The model predicts that motor signals recorded in the AFP during singing carry sensory information and that the primary role for auditory feedback during song learning is to maintain an accurate efference copy. The simplicity of the model suggests that associational efference copy learning may be a common strategy for overcoming feedback delay during sensorimotor learning.

Speech Intensity Response to Altered Intensity Feedback in Individuals With Parkinson's Disease

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Anita Senthinathan ◽  
Scott Adams ◽  
Allyson D. Page ◽  
Mandar Jog
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Auditory Feedback ◽  
Background Noise ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Auditory Information ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Comfortable Loudness

Purpose Hypophonia (low speech intensity) is the most common speech symptom experienced by individuals with Parkinson's disease (IWPD). Previous research suggests that, in IWPD, there may be abnormal integration of sensory information for motor production of speech intensity. In the current study, intensity of auditory feedback was systematically manipulated (altered in both positive and negative directions) during sensorimotor conditions that are known to modulate speech intensity in everyday contexts in order to better understand the role of auditory feedback for speech intensity regulation. Method Twenty-six IWPD and 24 neurologically healthy controls were asked to complete the following tasks: converse with the experimenter, start vowel production, and read sentences at a comfortable loudness, while hearing their own speech intensity randomly altered. Altered intensity feedback conditions included 5-, 10-, and 15-dB reductions and increases in the feedback intensity. Speech tasks were completed in no noise and in background noise. Results IWPD displayed a reduced response to the altered intensity feedback compared to control participants. This reduced response was most apparent when participants were speaking in background noise. Specific task-based differences in responses were observed such that the reduced response by IWPD was most pronounced during the conversation task. Conclusions The current study suggests that IWPD have abnormal processing of auditory information for speech intensity regulation, and this disruption particularly impacts their ability to regulate speech intensity in the context of speech tasks with clear communicative goals (i.e., conversational speech) and speaking in background noise.

Lateral Differences in Schematic Face Encoding during Dual-Task Performance with Increasing Levels of Difficulty

1989 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 767-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Wilcox ◽  
R. Harter Kraft
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Right Hand ◽  
Dual Task Performance ◽  
Hand Tapping ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right ◽  
Verbal Production

20 normal, right-handed, familial dextral men performed (a) unimanual finger tapping, (b) encoding of schematic faces at three levels of difficulty (3, 5, and 7 faces), (c) verbal production, (d) concurrent tapping and verbal production, and (e) concurrent tapping and face encoding. Subsequent recognition of faces was disrupted more by concurrent left-hand tapping than by concurrent right-hand tapping, supporting both the hypothesis that the right hemisphere mediates face encoding in adults and Kinsbourne and Hicks' (1978) “functional cerebral distance principle.” Left- and right-hand tapping rate and variability were not asymmetrically affected by either verbal production or face encoding. While there was an increase in generalized interference effects on face encoding, the degree of asymmetry of the interference remained constant. In addition, as the difficulty of the memory task increased, variability of tapping rate decreased. This was discussed in terms of attention and automatic motor programming.

scholarly journals Neurophysiological coordination of duet singing

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (23) ◽  
pp. e2018188118
Author(s):  
Melissa J. Coleman ◽  
Nancy F. Day ◽  
Pamela Rivera-Parra ◽  
Eric S. Fortune
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Feedback ◽  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Control Area ◽  
Aminobutyric Acid ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Field Site ◽  
Acoustic Feedback ◽  
Song Production ◽  
Song Control

Coordination of behavior for cooperative performances often relies on linkages mediated by sensory cues exchanged between participants. How neurophysiological responses to sensory information affect motor programs to coordinate behavior between individuals is not known. We investigated how plain-tailed wrens (Pheugopedius euophrys) use acoustic feedback to coordinate extraordinary duet performances in which females and males rapidly take turns singing. We made simultaneous neurophysiological recordings in a song control area “HVC” in pairs of singing wrens at a field site in Ecuador. HVC is a premotor area that integrates auditory feedback and is necessary for song production. We found that spiking activity of HVC neurons in each sex increased for production of its own syllables. In contrast, hearing sensory feedback produced by the bird’s partner decreased HVC activity during duet singing, potentially coordinating HVC premotor activity in each bird through inhibition. When birds sang alone, HVC neurons in females but not males were inhibited by hearing the partner bird. When birds were anesthetized with urethane, which antagonizes GABAergic (γ-aminobutyric acid) transmission, HVC neurons were excited rather than inhibited, suggesting a role for GABA in the coordination of duet singing. These data suggest that HVC integrates information across partners during duets and that rapid turn taking may be mediated, in part, by inhibition.

scholarly journals Chance, long tails, and inference: a non-Gaussian, Bayesian theory of vocal learning in songbirds

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baohua Zhou ◽  
David Hofmann ◽  
Itai Pinkoviezky ◽  
Samuel J. Sober ◽  
Ilya Nemenman
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Feedback ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Motor Command ◽  
Sensorimotor Learning ◽  
Behavioral Observations ◽  
Long Tails ◽  
The Face ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Non Gaussian

Traditional theories of sensorimotor learning posit that animals use sensory error signals to find the optimal motor command in the face of Gaussian sensory and motor noise. However, most such theories cannot explain common behavioral observations, for example that smaller sensory errors are more readily corrected than larger errors and that large abrupt (but not gradually introduced) errors lead to weak learning. Here we propose a new theory of sensorimotor learning that explains these observations. The theory posits that the animal learns an entire probability distribution of motor commands rather than trying to arrive at a single optimal command, and that learning arises via Bayesian inference when new sensory information becomes available. We test this theory using data from a songbird, the Bengalese finch, that is adapting the pitch (fundamental frequency) of its song following perturbations of auditory feedback using miniature headphones. We observe the distribution of the sung pitches to have long, non-Gaussian tails, which, within our theory, explains the observed dynamics of learning. Further, the theory makes surprising predictions about the dynamics of the shape of the pitch distribution, which we confirm experimentally.

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