Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology

Abstract

This theme issue assembles current studies that ask how and why precise synchronization and related forms of rhythm interaction are expressed in a wide range of behaviour. The studies cover human activity, with an emphasis on music, and social behaviour, reproduction and communication in non-human animals. In most cases, the temporally aligned rhythms have short—from several seconds down to a fraction of a second—periods and are regulated by central nervous system pacemakers, but interactions involving rhythms that are 24 h or longer and originate in biological clocks also occur. Across this spectrum of activities, species and time scales, empirical work and modelling suggest that synchrony arises from a limited number of coupled-oscillator mechanisms with which individuals mutually entrain. Phylogenetic distribution of these common mechanisms points towards convergent evolution. Studies of animal communication indicate that many synchronous interactions between the signals of neighbouring individuals are specifically favoured by selection. However, synchronous displays are often emergent properties of entrainment between signalling individuals, and in some situations, the very signallers who produce a display might not gain any benefit from the collective timing of their production. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology’.

You got rhythm, or more: The multidimensionality of rhythmic abilities

“…These competencies can be measured with different types of tasks and are likely to be supported by different underlying neural mechanisms (Bouwer et al, 2020;Thaut et al, 2014). Based on such findings, theoretical work is beginning to re-categorize rhythmic ability as multi-faceted, with potentially distinct biological bases and evolutionary histories underlying different competencies (Bouwer et al, 2021;Greenfield et al, 2021;. With the aim to measure separable rhythmic competencies within an overall picture of competencies instead of investigating them independently (as in earlier research), we refer here primarily to two distinctions: performance measured by perception versus production tasks, and performance measured by sequence memory-based versus beat-based rhythm perception tasks.…”

Chimera states among synchronous fireflies

“…Complex systems consisting of entities with internal periodicity often produce synchrony. This has been observed, demonstrated, and characterized across (spatial and temporal) scales and ensembles (1,2), animate or inanimate, from planetary orbits to ecosystems (3) to animal collectives (4,5) to cell tissues (cardiac or neuronal) and down to electronic structures. The underlying reason for this ubiquity is that interacting oscillators, even weakly coupled, tend to adjust their individual frequencies and drift toward a common phase.…”

Resonance as a Design Strategy for AI and Social Robots

“…Some researchers have recently proposed a unified account of rhythmic synchronization and entrainment in the brain (Lakatos et al, 2019 ); other researchers have proposed a unified account of the biological, neurological and physical mechanisms involved in the “rhythmic entrainment of biological systems” (Damm et al, 2020 ). Rhythmic entrainment has been found to govern patterns of interaction at a social, population, and even species level—where, in the latter case, the entrainment of natural oscillations can be observed at the scale of economies and ecosystems (Greenfield et al, 2021 ). In short, it would appear that resonance effects can operate all the way up and all the way down: from neurons to economies.…”