The sound of silence: an EEG study of how musicians time pauses in individual and joint music performance.

ABSTRACT: Pauses are an integral feature of social interaction. Conversation partners often pause between conversational turns, and musical co-performers often pause between musical phrases. How do humans coordinate the duration of pauses to ensure seamless interaction? A total of 40 trained pianists performed a simple melody containing fermatas (notated expressive pauses of unspecified duration) first alone (Solo) and then with a partner (Duet) while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. As predicted, Duet partners' tone onset synchrony was reduced for tones following pauses. Pauses were shorter in Duet relative to Solo performance, and synchrony of partners' Duet tone onsets was enhanced for tones following shorter pauses. EEG analysis revealed classic signatures of action preparation during

SUBMITTER: Zamm A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7812619 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature