scholarly journals Extended Neural Metastability in an Embodied Model of Sensorimotor Coupling

Author(s):  
Miguel Aguilera ◽  
Manuel G. Bedia ◽  
Xabier E. Barandiaran
2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Huang Su ◽  
Elvira Salazar-López

Temporal mechanisms for processing auditory musical rhythms are well established, in which a perceived beat is beneficial for timing purposes. It is yet unknown whether such beat-based timing would also underlie visual perception of temporally structured, ecological stimuli connected to music: dance. In this study, we investigated whether observers extracted a visual beat when watching dance movements to assist visual timing of these movements. Participants watched silent videos of dance sequences and reproduced the movement duration by mental recall. We found better visual timing for limb movements with regular patterns in the trajectories than without, similar to the beat advantage for auditory rhythms. When movements involved both the arms and the legs, the benefit of a visual beat relied only on the latter. The beat-based advantage persisted despite auditory interferences that were temporally incongruent with the visual beat, arguing for the visual nature of these mechanisms. Our results suggest that visual timing principles for dance parallel their auditory counterparts for music, which may be based on common sensorimotor coupling. These processes likely yield multimodal rhythm representations in the scenario of music and dance.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e0117465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Aguilera ◽  
Xabier E. Barandiaran ◽  
Manuel G. Bedia ◽  
Francisco Seron

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1835) ◽  
pp. 20200331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nori Jacoby ◽  
Rainer Polak ◽  
Justin London

Human social interactions often involve carefully synchronized behaviours. Musical performance in particular features precise timing and depends on the differentiation and coordination of musical/social roles. Here, we study the influence of musical/social roles, individual musicians and different ensembles on rhythmic synchronization in Malian drum ensemble music, which features synchronization accuracy near the limits of human performance. We analysed 72 recordings of the same piece performed by four trios, in which two drummers in each trio systematically switched roles (lead versus accompaniment). Musical role, rather than individual or group differences, is the main factor influencing synchronization accuracy. Using linear causal modelling, we found a consistent pattern of bi-directional couplings between players, in which the direction and strength of rhythmic adaptation is asymmetrically distributed across musical roles. This differs from notions of musical leadership, which assume that ensemble synchronization relies predominantly on a single dominant personality and/or musical role. We then ran simulations that varied the direction and strength of sensorimotor coupling and found that the coupling pattern used by the Malian musicians affords nearly optimal synchronization. More broadly, our study showcases the importance of ecologically valid and culturally diverse studies of human behaviour. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology’.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen M. Howard ◽  
Danielle Ropar ◽  
Roger Newport ◽  
Bahar Tunçgenç

AbstractInterpersonal synchrony is a fundamental part of human social interaction, with known effects on facilitating social bonding. Moving in time with another person facilitates prosocial behaviour, however, it is unknown if the degree of synchronisation predicts the degree of social bonding. Similarly, while people readily fall in synchrony even without being instructed to do so, we do not know whether such spontaneous synchronisation elicits similar prosocial effects as instructed synchronisation. Across two studies, we investigated how context (social vs non-social stimulus) and instruction (instructed vs uninstructed) influenced synchronisation accuracy and bonding with the interaction partner in adults and children. The results revealed improved visuomotor synchrony within a social, compared to non-social, context in adults and children. Children, but not adults, synchronised more accurately when instructed to synchronise than when uninstructed. For both children and adults, synchronisation in a social context elicited stronger social bonding towards an interaction partner as compared to synchronisation in a non-social context. Finally, children’s, but not adults’, degree of synchrony with the partner was significantly associated with their feelings of social closeness. These findings illuminate the interaction of sensorimotor coupling and joint action in social contexts and how these mechanisms facilitate synchronisation ability and social bonding.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefane A. Aguiar ◽  
Karina Gramani-Say ◽  
Andrei G. Lopes ◽  
Jose A. Barela

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 400-409
Author(s):  
Dan Chiappe ◽  
John Vervaeke

Abstract Scientists working in the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission (2004–2018) reported having a sense of presence on Mars. How is this possible, given that many of the factors underlying presence in mundane situations were absent? We use Riva and Waterworth's (2014) Three-Level model to elucidate how presence was achieved. It distinguishes among proto-presence, core-presence, and extended-presence. We argue that scientists did not experience proto-presence because it requires a tight sensorimotor coupling not available due to the way the rovers were controlled and due to the lengthy delays in getting feedback. Instead, the design of the sociotechnical system made core-presence and extended-presence possible. Extended-presence involved successfully establishing long-term conceptual goals during strategic planning meetings. Core-presence involved enacting short-term tactical goals by carrying out specific actions on particular targets, abstracting away from sensorimotor details. The shift of perspective to the Martian surface was facilitated by team members “becoming the rover,” which allowed them to identify relevant affordances evident in images. We argue, however, that because Mars exploration is a collective activity involving shared agency by a distributed cognitive system, the experience of core- and extended-presence was a collective sense of presence through the rovers.


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