Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Syncopation affects free body-movement in musical groove

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

One of the most immediate and overt ways in which people respond to music is by moving their bodies to the beat. However, the extent to which the rhythmic complexity of groove—specifically its syncopation—contributes to how people spontaneously move to music is largely unexplored. Here, we measured free movements in hand and torso while participants listened to drum-breaks with various degrees of syncopation. We found that drum-breaks with medium degrees of syncopation were associated with the same amount of acceleration and synchronisation as low degrees of syncopation. Participants who enjoyed dancing made more complex movements than those who did not enjoy dancing. While for all participants hand movements accelerated more and were more complex, torso movements were more synchronised to the beat. Overall, movements were mostly synchronised to the main beat and half-beat level, depending on the body-part. We demonstrate that while people do not move or synchronise much to rhythms with high syncopation when dancing spontaneously to music, the relationship between rhythmic complexity and synchronisation is less linear than in simple finger-tapping studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bennett R (1969) The intrinsic dimensionality of signal collections. IEEE Trans Inf Theory 15:517–525

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berlyne DE (1971) Aesthetics and psychobiology. Appleton-Century-Crofts, East Norwalk

    Google Scholar 

  • Burger B, Toiviainen P (2013) MoCap Toolbox: a matlab toolbox for computational analysis of movement data. In: Proceedings of 10th sound and music computing conference (SMC), Stockholm, Sweden Berlin: Logos Verlag

  • Burger B, Saarikallio S, Luck G, Thompson MR, Toiviainen P (2013a) Relationships between perceived emotions in music and music-induced movement. Music Percept 30:517–533

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burger B, Thompson MR, Luck G, Saarikallio S, Toiviainen P (2013b) Influences of rhythm- and timbre-related musical features on characteristics of music-induced movement. Front Psychol 4:183

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chen JL, Zatorre RJ, Penhune VB (2008) Moving on time: brain network for auditory-motor synchronization is modulated by rhythm complexity and musical training. J Cogn Neurosci 20:226–239

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clark A (2008) Supersizing the mind: embodiment, action, and cognitive extension. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke EF (1999) Rhythm and timing in music. In: Deutsch D (ed) The psychology of music, 2nd edn. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitch WT, Rosenfeld AJ (2007) Perception and production of syncopated rhythms. Music Percept 25:43–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fraisse P (1963) The psychology of time. Harper & Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraisse P (1982) Rhythm and tempo. In: Deutsch D (ed) The psychology of music, 1st edn. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Honing H (2012) Without it no music: beat induction as a fundamental musical trait. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1252:85–91. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06402.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Janata P, Tomic ST, Haberman JM (2012) Sensorimotor coupling in music and the psychology of the groove. J Exp Psychol Gen 141:54–75. doi:10.1037/a0024208

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jones MR (2009) Musical time. In: Hallam S, Cross I, Thaut M (eds) The Oxford handbook of music psychology. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 81–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Keitz M, Martin-Soelch C, Leenders K (2003) Reward processing in the brain: a prerequisite for movement preparation? Neural Plas 10:121–128

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Konvalinka I, Vuust P, Roepstorff A, Frith CD (2010) Follow you, follow me: continuous mutual prediction and adaptation in joint tapping. Q J Exp Psychol 63:2220–2230

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ladinig O, Honing H, Haden G, Winkler I (2009) Probing attentive and preattentive emergent meter in adult listeners without extensive musical training. Music Percept 26:377–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Large EW, Herrera JA, Velasco MJ (2015) Neural networks for beat perception in musical rhythm. Front Syst Neurosci 9:159

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Leman M (2007) Embodied music cognition and mediation technology. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Leman M, Naveda L (2010) Basic gestures as spatiotemporal reference frames for repetitive dance/music patterns in Samba and Charleston. Music Percept 28:71–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerdahl F, Jackendoff R (1983) A generative theory of tonal music. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • London J (2012) Hearing in time. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Longuet-Higgins HC, Lee C (1984) The rhythmic interpretation of monophonic music. Music Percept 1:424–440

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luck G, Saarikallio S, Burger B, Thompson MR, Toiviainen P (2010) Effects of the Big Five and musical genre on music-induced movement. J Res Pers 44:714–720. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2010.10.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madison G (2006) Experiencing groove induced by music: consistency and phenomenology. Music Percept 24:201–208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madison G, Gouyon F, Ullén F, Hörnström K (2011) Modeling the tendency for music to induce movement in humans: first correlations with low-level audio descriptors across music genres. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 37:1578–1594. doi:10.1037/a0024323

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Margulis EH, Beatty AP (2008) Musical style, psychoaesthetics, and prospects for entropy as an analytical tool. Comput Music J 32:64–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miura A, Kudo K, Ohtsuki T, Kanehisa H, Nakazawa K (2013) Relationship between muscle cocontraction and proficiency in whole-body sensorimotor synchronization: a comparison study of street dancers and nondancers. Mot Control 17:18–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer C, Krumhansl CL (1990) Mental representation for musical meter. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 16:728–741

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips-Silver J, Aktipis AC, Bryant G (2010) The ecology of entrainment: foundations of coordinated rhythmic movement. Music Percept 28:3–14

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Repp BH, Su Y-H (2013) Sensorimotor synchronization: a review of recent research (2006–2012). Psychon Bull Rev 20:403–452

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Saarikallio S, Luck G, Burger B, Thompson M, Toiviainen P (2013) Dance moves reflect current affective state illustrative of approach–avoidance motivation. Psychol Aesthet Creat Arts 7:296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sioros G, Miron M, Davies M, Gouyon F, Madison G (2014) Syncopation creates the sensation of groove in synthesized music examples. Front Psychol 5:1036

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Skewes JC, Skewes L, Michael J, Konvalinka I (2015) Synchronised and complementary coordination mechanisms in an asymmetric joint aiming task. Exp Brain Res 233:551–565

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Snyder JS, Krumhansl CL (2001) Tapping to ragtime: cues to pulse finding. Music Percept 18:455–489

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Song C, Simpson AJ, Harte CA, Pearce MT, Sandler MB (2013) Syncopation and the score. PLoS ONE 8:e74692

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Stupacher J, Hove MJ, Novembre G, Schütz-Bosbach S, Keller PE (2013) Musical groove modulates motor cortex excitability: a TMS investigation. Brain Cogn 82:127–136

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Temperley D (2010) Modeling common-practice rhythm. Music Percept 27:355–376

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Todd NPMA, Cousins R, Lee CS (2007) The contribution of anthropometric factors to individual differences in the perception of rhythm. Empir Musicol Rev 2:13

    Google Scholar 

  • Tognoli E, Lagarde J, DeGuzman GC, Kelso JS (2007) The phi complex as a neuromarker of human social coordination. Proc Natl Acad Sci 104:8190–8195

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Toiviainen P, Luck G, Thompson MR (2010) Embodied meter: hierarchical eigenmodes in music-induced movement. Music Percept 28:59–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trost W, Vuilleumier P (2013) Rhythmic entrainment as a mechanism for emotion induction by music: a neurophysiological perspective. In: Cochrane T, Fantini B, Scherer KR (eds) The emotional power of music: multidisciplinary perspectives on musical arousal, expression, and social control. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 213–225

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Van Dyck E, Moelants D, Demey M, Coussement P, Deweppe A, Leman M (2010) The impact of the basis drum on body movement in spontaneous dance. In: Proceedings of the 11th international conference on music perception and cognition, Seattle, Washington, USA, 23–27.8.2010

  • Varela FJ, Thompson E, Rosch E (1991) The embodied mind. Cognitive science and human experience. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Witek MAG (2016) Filling in: syncopation, pleasure and distributed embodiment in groove. Music Anal. doi:10.1111/musa.12082

    Google Scholar 

  • Witek MAG, Clarke EF, Kringelbach ML, Vuust P (2014a) Effects of polyphonic context, instrumentation and metric location on syncopation in music. Music Percept 32:201–217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Witek MAG, Clarke EF, Wallentin M, Kringelbach ML, Vuust P (2014b) Syncopation, body-movement and pleasure in groove music. PLoS ONE 9:e94446. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0094446

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Witek MA, Clarke EF, Wallentin M, Kringelbach ML, Vuust P (2015) Correction: syncopation, body-movement and pleasure in groove music. PLoS ONE 10

  • Wundt W (1874) Grundzuge der physiologischen psychologie. Englemann, Leipzig

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Center for Music in the Brain is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF117). IK is funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research—Technology and Production Sciences. Financial support to TP was in part provided by the Zukunftskonzept at TU Dresden funded by the Exzellenzinitiative of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. MLK is supported by the ERC Consolidator Grant: CAREGIVING (n. 615539). We thank Kristian Nymoen and Birgitta Burger for help with the analysis.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Noerrebrogade 44, 8000, Aarhus, Denmark

    Maria A. G. Witek, Morten L. Kringelbach & Peter Vuust

  2. Dresden Music Cognition Lab, Dresden University of Technology, August-Bebel Str 20, 01219, Dresden, Germany

    Tudor Popescu

  3. Faculty of Music, University of Oxford, St Aldate’s, Oxford, OX1 1DB, UK

    Eric F. Clarke

  4. Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Bartholins Alle 9, 8000, Aarhus, Denmark

    Mads Hansen

  5. Section for Cognitive Systems, Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, Richard Petersens Plads, 2800, Lyngby, Denmark

    Ivana Konvalinka

  6. Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, University of Oxford, Warneford Lane, Oxford, OX3 7JX, UK

    Morten L. Kringelbach

Authors
  1. Maria A. G. Witek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tudor Popescu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Eric F. Clarke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mads Hansen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ivana Konvalinka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Morten L. Kringelbach
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Peter Vuust
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria A. G. Witek.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional and/or National Research Committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 396 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Witek, M.A.G., Popescu, T., Clarke, E.F. et al. Syncopation affects free body-movement in musical groove. Exp Brain Res 235, 995–1005 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4855-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4855-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation