Department of Medicine, Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany.
Institute for Psychology & Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany.
PLoS One. 2018 Nov 28;13(11):e0207462. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207462. eCollection 2018.
Audio-motor coordination is a fundamental requirement in the learning and execution of sequential actions such as music performance. Predictive motor control mechanisms determine the sequential content and timing of upcoming tones and thereby facilitate accurate performance. To study the role of auditory-motor predictions at early stages of acquiring piano performance skills, we conducted an experiment in which non-musicians learned to play a musical sequence on the piano in synchrony with a metronome. Three experimental conditions compared errors and timing. The first consisted of normal auditory feedback using conventional piano key-to-tone mappings. The second employed fixed-pitch auditory feedback consisting of a single tone that was given with each key stroke. In the third condition, for each key stroke a tone was randomly drawn from the set of tones associated with the normal sequence. The results showed that when auditory feedback tones were randomly assigned, participants produced more sequencing errors (i.e., a higher percentage of incorrect key strokes) compared to when auditory feedback was normal or consisted of a single tone of fixed pitch. Furthermore, synchronization with the metronome was most accurate in the fixed-pitch single-tone condition. These findings suggest that predictive motor control mechanisms support sequencing and timing, and that these sensorimotor processes are dissociable even at early stages of acquiring complex motor skills such as music performance.
听觉-运动协调是学习和执行顺序动作（如音乐演奏）的基本要求。预测性运动控制机制决定了即将到来的音调和顺序内容以及时间，从而促进了准确的演奏。为了研究在获得钢琴演奏技能的早期阶段听觉-运动预测的作用，我们进行了一项实验，非音乐家在与节拍器同步的情况下学习在钢琴上演奏音乐序列。三个实验条件比较了错误和时间。第一个条件是使用传统钢琴键音映射的正常听觉反馈。第二个条件使用固定音高的听觉反馈，即每个按键都会发出一个单一的音。在第三个条件下，对于每个按键，会从与正常序列相关的音集中随机抽取一个音。结果表明，与正常听觉反馈或固定音高的单一音相比，当听觉反馈音随机分配时，参与者产生的序列错误更多（即错误按键的比例更高）。此外，与节拍器的同步在固定音高单音条件下最准确。这些发现表明，预测性运动控制机制支持序列和时间，即使在获得复杂运动技能（如音乐演奏）的早期阶段，这些感觉运动过程也是可分离的。
