Endogenous rhythms influence interpersonal synchrony.

Abstract

Interpersonal synchrony, the temporal coordination of actions between individuals, is fundamental to social behaviors from conversational speech to dance and music-making. Animal models indicate constraints on synchrony that arise from endogenous rhythms: Intrinsic periodic behaviors or processes that continue in the absence of change in external stimulus conditions. We report evidence for a direct causal link between endogenous rhythms and interpersonal synchrony in a music performance task, which places high demands on temporal coordination. We first establish that endogenous rhythms, measured by spontaneous rates of individual performance, are stable within individuals across stimulus materials, limb movements, and time points. We then test a causal link between endogenous rhythms and interpersonal synchrony by pairing each musician with a partner who is either matched or mismatched in spontaneous rate and by measuring their joint behavior up to 1 year later. Partners performed melodies together, using either the same or different hands. Partners who were matched for spontaneous rate showed greater interpersonal synchrony in joint performance than mismatched partners, regardless of hand used. Endogenous rhythms offer potential to predict optimal group membership in joint behaviors that require temporal coordination.

Interaction patterns and individual dynamics shape the way we move in synchrony

“…In the particular case of the Path graph, we found that the group whose members had natural frequencies closer to each other (Group 1) synchronised better. This extends to multiplayer scenarios the results of [51], which showed that greater interpersonal synchrony in musical duo performances is achieved when the endogenous rhythms of two pianists are closer to each other.…”

Staying Together: A Bidirectional Delay–Coupled Approach to Joint Action

“…We assume that, in the context of a joint (duet) performance, two musicians attempt to perform at the same frequency, but there may be natural frequency differences between them, such that one tends to play slightly faster than the other, consistent with empirical findings of frequency differences (x 1 À x 2 ) between performers that influence synchronization Zamm et al, 2016). For desynchronization to occur, we assume a slight difference between the voices, and the oscillator frequencies were set to x 1 = 2p/250, x 2 = 2p/251 rad/ms (larger values are faster).…”

The roles of musical expertise and sensory feedback in beat keeping and joint action

“…Success in joint action tasks is hypothesized to require the ability to monitor the timing of one’s own actions to predict or track the timing of another person’s action (Keller, Novembre, & Hove, 2014 ; Sebanz & Knoblich, 2009 ). Some have proposed that individual differences in interpersonal synchronization abilities are related to individuals’ spontaneous rates of movement (Loehr & Palmer, 2011 ; Zamm, Wellman, & Palmer, 2016 ), their ability to predict the timing of stimulus onsets (Mills, van der Steen, Schultz, & Keller, 2015 ; Pecenka & Keller, 2011 ), equality of social status (Demos, Carter, Wanderley, & Palmer, 2017), musical imagery (Keller & Appel, 2010 ), or their musical expertise (Franěk, Mates, Radil, Beck, & Pöppel, 1991 ; Krause, Pollok, & Schnitzler, 2010 ). Such individual differences are thought to help regulate one’s own timing as well as predicting and tracking the timing of others’ actions.…”