Synchronizing Actions with Events: the Role of Sensory Information

Overview

Journal Percept Psychophys

Specialties Psychiatry
Psychology

Date 1995 Apr 1

PMID 7770322

Citations 75

Authors

G Aschersleben

W Prinz

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Tasks requiring the subject to tap in synchrony to a regular sequence of stimulus events (e.g., clicks) usually elicit a response pattern in which the tap precedes the click by about 30-50 msec. This "negative asynchrony" was examined, first, by instructing subjects to use different effectors for tapping (hand vs. foot; Experiments 1 and 2), and second, by administering extrinsic auditory feedback in addition to the intrinsic tactile/kinesthetic feedback (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 controlled whether the results observed in Experiment 2 were due to purely sensory factors within the auditory modality. Results suggest that taps are synchronized with clicks at the central level by superimposing two sensory codes in time: the tactile/kinesthetic code that represents the tap (the afferent movement code) and the auditory code that represents the click (the afferent code that results from the guiding signal). Because the processing times involved in code generation are different for these two central codes, the tap has to lead over the click.

Citing Articles

Differences in the movement phase condition and sensory inputs on temporal synchronization and continuation during bilateral foot-tapping tasks.

Numata A, Terao Y, Sugawara K, Ugawa Y, Furubayashi T Front Hum Neurosci. 2025; 19:1518230.

PMID: 39949986 PMC: 11821618. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1518230.

Pleasantness makes a good time: musical consonance shapes interpersonal synchronization in dyadic joint action.

Lazzari G, Sacheli L, Benoit C, Lega C, van Vugt F Front Hum Neurosci. 2024; 18:1472632.

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Effect of time delay on performance and timing control in dyadic rhythm coordination using finger tapping.

Koike Y, Ogata T, Nozawa T, Miyake Y Sci Rep. 2024; 14(1):17382.

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Effects of individual practice on joint musical synchronization.

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Commonality and variation in mental representations of music revealed by a cross-cultural comparison of rhythm priors in 15 countries.

Jacoby N, Polak R, Grahn J, Cameron D, Lee K, Godoy R Nat Hum Behav. 2024; 8(5):846-877.

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