Is there a link between sensorimotor coordination and inter-manual coordination? Differential effects of auditory and/or visual rhythmic stimulations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test how the sensory modality of rhythmic stimuli affects the production of bimanual coordination patterns. To this aim, participants had to synchronize the taps of their two index fingers with auditory and visual stimuli presented separately (auditory or visual) or simultaneously (audio-visual). This kind of task requires two levels of coordination: (1) sensorimotor coordination, which can be measured by the mean asynchrony between the beat of the stimulus and the corresponding tap and by mean asynchrony stability, and (2) inter-manual coordination, which can be assessed by the accuracy and stability of the relative phase between the right-hand and left-hand taps. Previous studies show that sensorimotor coordination is better during the synchronization with auditory or audio-visual metronomes than with visual metronome, but it is not known whether inter-manual coordination is affected by stimulation modalities. To answer this question, 13 participants were required to tap their index fingers in synchrony with the beat of auditory and/or visual stimuli specifying three coordination patterns: two preferred inphase and antiphase patterns and a non-preferred intermediate pattern. A first main result demonstrated that inphase tapping had the best inter-manual stability, but the worst asynchrony stability. The second main finding revealed that for all patterns, audio-visual stimulation improved the stability of sensorimotor coordination but not of inter-manual coordination. The combination of visual and auditory modalities results in multisensory integration, which improves sensorimotor coordination but not inter-manual coordination. Both results suggest that there is dissociation between processes underlying sensorimotor synchronization (anticipation or reactivity) and processes underlying inter-manual coordination (motor control). This finding opens new perspectives to evaluate separately the possible sensorimotor and inter-manual coordination deficits present in movement disorders.

Procedural learning and retention of audio‐verbal temporal sequence is altered in children with developmental coordination disorder but cortical thickness matters

“…In the TD group, it is interesting to note that auditory and visual stimuli lead to similar performance during learning. This result is quite surprising given that previous studies have found the dominance of auditory information in motor synchronization in healthy adults (Blais, Albaret, & Tallet, 2015; Chen et al., 2007; Fraisse, 1948; Patel et al., 2005; Repp & Penel, 2002; Semjen & Ivry, 2001; Tierney & Kraus, 2013) and in learning of complex rhythmic sequences (Karabanov et al., 2009). A first hypothesis is that children do not present such an auditory dominance.…”

A Tablet-Based Assessment of Rhythmic Ability

“…This hypothesis was based on previous research reporting lower standard deviations with bimodal, compared to unimodal, stimuli. Although the magnitude of the difference between bimodal and unimodal stimuli varies between 2 ms (unimodal has smaller standard deviation) and −55 ms (bimodal has smaller standard deviation) (Elliott et al, 2010, 2011; Wing et al, 2010; Wright et al, 2014; Blais et al, 2015; Roy et al, 2017), prior results generally indicate performance is better with bimodal stimuli. Here, the difference between bimodal and unimodal stimuli was −6 ms (Figure 5H), in line with previous results.…”

“…Fortunately, this result is not without precedent. Studies assessing asynchrony typically show either bimodal is comparable to the best unimodal asynchrony or that bimodal is between the two unimodal asynchronies (Wing et al, 2010; Wright et al, 2014; Blais et al, 2015; Roy et al, 2017). Here, we show the former using absolute asynchrony (Figure 5G).…”

The Differential Effects of Auditory and Visual Stimuli on Learning, Retention and Reactivation of a Perceptual-Motor Temporal Sequence in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder

“…Experimentally, the production of time intervals can be assessed via sensori-motor synchronization (SMS), which is synchronization of a motor output with a sensory stimulus (Fraisse, 1948;Fraisse et al, 1958;Repp et al, 2011;Repp, 2005;Repp and Su, 2013). Several studies have investigated SMS with isochronous stimuli, i.e., with identical time intervals between two stimuli (Jäncke et al, 2000;Chen et al, 2002;Pollok et al, 2009;Blais et al, 2014Blais et al, , 2015. Studies using an SMS paradigm in healthy adults highlight that synchronization with auditory stimuli is stable (Sowiński and Dalla Bella, 2013).…”

“…Moreover, the literature shows that SMS depends on the sensory modality of the stimuli. When participants are required to tap with their index finger in synchronization with tones (auditory sequence) or flashes (visual sequence), SMS with an auditory stimulus is more accurate and stable than SMS with a visual stimulus (Fraisse, 1948;Semjen and Ivry, 2001;Chen et al, 2002;Repp and Penel, 2002;Patel et al, 2005;Tierney and Kraus, 2013;Blais et al, 2014Blais et al, , 2015. This suggests that rhythmic movements tend to synchronize with auditory more than visual rhythms (Repp and Penel, 2004;Kato and Konishi, 2006).…”