Bowling Daniel L, Graf Ancochea Pablo, Hove Michael J, Fitch W Tecumseh
Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Psychological Science, Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, MA, United States.
Front Neurosci. 2019 Jan 10;12:1039. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2018.01039. eCollection 2018.
The capacity to entrain motor action to rhythmic auditory stimulation is highly developed in humans and extremely limited in our closest relatives. An important aspect of auditory-motor entrainment is that not all forms of rhythmic stimulation motivate movement to the same degree. This variation is captured by the concept of musical groove: high-groove music stimulates a strong desire for movement, whereas low-groove music does not. Here, we utilize this difference to investigate the neurophysiological basis of our capacity for auditory-motor entrainment. In a series of three experiments we examine pupillary responses to musical stimuli varying in groove. Our results show stronger pupil dilation in response to (1) high- vs. low-groove music, (2) high vs. low spectral content, and (3) syncopated vs. straight drum patterns. We additionally report evidence for consistent sex differences in music-induced pupillary responses, with males exhibiting larger differences between responses, but females exhibiting stronger responses overall. These results imply that the biological link between movement and auditory rhythms in our species is supported by the capacity of high-groove music to stimulate arousal in the central and peripheral nervous system, presumably via highly conserved noradrenergic mechanisms.
人类将运动动作与有节奏的听觉刺激同步的能力高度发达，而在我们的近亲中则极为有限。听觉-运动同步的一个重要方面是，并非所有形式的节奏刺激都能同等程度地激发运动。这种差异可以用音乐律动的概念来描述：高律动的音乐能强烈激发运动欲望，而低律动的音乐则不然。在此，我们利用这种差异来探究我们听觉-运动同步能力的神经生理基础。在一系列三个实验中，我们研究了瞳孔对不同律动的音乐刺激的反应。我们的结果显示，对以下三种情况的音乐刺激，瞳孔扩张更强烈：（1）高律动与低律动音乐；（2）高频与低频谱内容；（3）切分节奏与直鼓节奏。我们还报告了音乐诱发瞳孔反应中存在一致的性别差异的证据，男性的反应差异更大，而女性总体反应更强。这些结果表明，高律动音乐可能通过高度保守的去甲肾上腺素能机制刺激中枢和外周神经系统的觉醒，从而支持了我们物种中运动与听觉节奏之间的生物学联系。
