Keeping the Beat: A Large Sample Study of Bouncing and Clapping to Music.

ABSTRACT: The vast majority of humans move in time with a musical beat. This behaviour has been mostly studied through finger-tapping synchronization. Here, we evaluate naturalistic synchronization responses to music-bouncing and clapping-in 100 university students. Their ability to match the period of their bounces and claps to those of a metronome and musical clips varying in beat saliency was assessed. In general, clapping was better synchronized with the beat than bouncing, suggesting that the choice of a specific movement type is an important factor to consider in the study of sensorimotor synchronization processes. Performance improved as a function of beat saliency, indicating that beat abstraction plays a significant role in synchronization. Fourteen percent of the population exhibited marke

SUBMITTER: Tranchant P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4966945 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature