BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1611651
Refined Analysis of the Speech-to-Speech Synchronization Task Reveals Subharmonic Synchronization
Provisionally accepted
- University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
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The Speech-to-Speech Synchronization task is a well-established behavioral approach to assess individual differences in auditory-motor synchronization. In this task, participants listen to a series of syllables that progressively increase in frequency, while simultaneously whispering the syllable /ta/ to synchronize with the rhythm of the incoming syllables. In our study, we replicated the bimodal distribution of high-and low-synchronizers in a sample of native German speakers.We present a refined analysis pipeline based on existing analysis scripts, address minor taskrelated issues and observations, and incorporate new analysis features such as the removal of silent gaps. Crucially, our analysis revealed that (sub-)harmonic interactions might emerge during various stages of synchronization and its assessment, obscured by the synchronization measurement. Subharmonic synchronizers were found to produce the /ta/-syllables to only every second or third incoming syllable which can result in deceptively high Phase Locking Values, thus challenging the conceptualization of low-and high-synchronizers. Our data analysis is available at OSF.
Keywords: Speech-to-Speech Synchronization, neural entrainment, Phase locking value (PLV), Subharmonic synchronization, Auditory-motor synchronization, refined data analysis
Received: 14 Apr 2025; Accepted: 06 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bross, Hofmann, Schneider and Wartenburger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Isabell Wartenburger, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
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