Bross Simon, Hofmann Andrea, Schneider Kathleen, Wartenburger Isabell
Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
Front Neurosci. 2025 Jul 2;19:1611651. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1611651. eCollection 2025.
The Speech-to-Speech Synchronization task is a well-established behavioral approach to assess individual differences in auditory-motor synchronization. In this task, participants listen to a series of syllables that progressively increase in frequency, while simultaneously whispering the syllable /ta/ to synchronize with the rhythm of the incoming syllables. In our study, we replicated the bimodal distribution of high- and low-synchronizers in a sample of native German speakers. We present a refined analysis pipeline based on existing analysis scripts, address minor task-related issues and observations, and incorporate new analysis features such as the removal of silent gaps. Crucially, our analysis revealed that (sub-)harmonic interactions can emerge during various stages of synchronization and its assessment, obscured by the synchronization measurement. Subharmonic synchronizers were found to produce the /ta/-syllables to only every second or third incoming syllable which can result in deceptively high Phase Locking Values, thus challenging the conceptualization of low- and high-synchronizers. Our data analysis is available at OSF.
语音到语音同步任务是一种成熟的行为方法，用于评估听觉-运动同步方面的个体差异。在这个任务中，参与者听一系列频率逐渐增加的音节，同时轻声说出音节/ta/，以便与传入音节的节奏同步。在我们的研究中，我们在以德语为母语的样本中复制了高同步者和低同步者的双峰分布。我们基于现有的分析脚本提出了一个优化的分析流程，解决了与任务相关的一些小问题和观察结果，并纳入了新的分析功能，如去除静音间隙。至关重要的是，我们的分析表明，（次）谐波相互作用可能在同步及其评估的各个阶段出现，被同步测量所掩盖。发现次谐波同步者仅对每隔一个或第三个传入音节发出/ta/音节，这可能导致看似很高的锁相值，从而对低同步者和高同步者的概念化提出了挑战。我们的数据分析可在开放科学框架（OSF）上获取。
