Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Exp Brain Res. 2011 Apr;210(2):269-82. doi: 10.1007/s00221-011-2630-2. Epub 2011 Mar 26.
Most people find it easy to perform rhythmic movements in synchrony with music, which reflects their ability to perceive the temporal periodicity and to allocate attention in time accordingly. Musicians and non-musicians were tested in a click localization paradigm in order to investigate how grouping and metrical accents in metrical rhythms influence attention allocation, and to reveal the effect of musical expertise on such processing. We performed two experiments in which the participants were required to listen to isochronous metrical rhythms containing superimposed clicks and then to localize the click on graphical and ruler-like representations with and without grouping structure information, respectively. Both experiments revealed metrical and grouping influences on click localization. Musical expertise improved the precision of click localization, especially when the click coincided with a metrically strong beat. Critically, although all participants located the click accurately at the beginning of an intensity group, only musicians located it precisely when it coincided with a strong beat at the end of the group. Removal of the visual cue of grouping structures enhanced these effects in musicians and reduced them in non-musicians. These results indicate that musical expertise not only enhances attention to metrical accents but also heightens sensitivity to perceptual grouping.
大多数人都能轻松地随着音乐进行节奏性运动，这反映了他们感知时间周期性并相应地分配注意力的能力。本研究通过点击定位范式测试了音乐家和非音乐家，以调查节拍韵律中的分组和韵律重音如何影响注意力分配，并揭示音乐专业知识对这种处理的影响。我们进行了两项实验，要求参与者听包含叠加点击的等时节拍韵律，然后分别在具有和不具有分组结构信息的图形和标尺表示上定位点击。这两个实验都揭示了节拍和分组对点击定位的影响。音乐专业知识提高了点击定位的精度，尤其是当点击与节拍重音相吻合时。关键的是，尽管所有参与者在强度组的开头都能准确地定位点击，但只有音乐家在分组结束时与节拍重音相吻合时才能准确地定位点击。去除分组结构的视觉提示增强了音乐家的这些效果，而减少了非音乐家的效果。这些结果表明，音乐专业知识不仅增强了对节拍重音的注意力，而且提高了对知觉分组的敏感性。
