Stages of Beat Perception and the Influence of Incongruity: An fMRI Study
-
1
Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, Canada
-
2
Dept. of Psychology and Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, Canada
Humans sense a periodic beat in metric, non-isochronous, auditory sequences such as musical rhythms. Beat perception occurs in stages: orienting attention to absolute intervals in the rhythm to extract the metrical beat (beat finding), anticipating the ongoing beat (beat continuation), and adapting to changing rhythm (beat switching).
In music, multiple rhythms are often heard concurrently, with one perceived beat rate, even if beat rates of individual rhythms are different. This incongruence can manifest as polyrhythm or metric ambiguity.
We used fMRI to investigate brain activation across stages of beat perception in congruent and incongruent rhythmic sequences. Participants heard auditory rhythms composed of two strongly metric (highly beat-inducing) tone sequences. The two sequences in each trial had either congruent or incongruent metrical beat rates, and were presented in either a simultaneous or staggered fashion. For staggered trials, one sequence began, the second faded in, and after playing simultaneously, the first dropped out. This induced a change in the perceived beat, allowing us to investigate beat switching.
Results indicated that orienting attention to intervals to extract the beat (finding) produced greater striatal, parietal, and cerebellar activations compared to ongoing prediction (beat continuation). Continuation produced greater left dorsal frontal and dorsal premotor activations compared to finding. Adapting to a changing rhythmic stimulus (beat switching) produced greater anterior insular activations compared to finding. For incongruent compared to congruent trials, we found greater activation in right anterior insula, superior temporal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus. These results suggest that distinct neural substrates underlie the stages of beat perception and are influenced by incongruence.
Keywords:
Rhythm,
beat perception,
metrical incongruity,
Putamen,
fMRI
Conference:
14th Rhythm Production and Perception Workshop Birmingham 11th - 13th September 2013, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 11 Sep - 13 Sep, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Rhythm Production and Perception
Citation:
Cameron
DJ and
Grahn
JA
(2013). Stages of Beat Perception and the Influence of Incongruity: An fMRI Study.
Conference Abstract:
14th Rhythm Production and Perception Workshop Birmingham 11th - 13th September 2013.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.214.00020
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
19 Jul 2013;
Published Online:
24 Sep 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Daniel J Cameron, Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Canada, danielcameron01@gmail.com