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26-29 octobre 2009
Sensorimotor synchronization in IF, a 5-year-old drummer prodigy Jakub Sowi!ski1, Simone Dalla Bella1,2, Ilona Laskowska3 1.Department of Cognitive Psychology, University of Finance and Management in Warsaw (Poland) 2. BRAMS laboratories, Montréal (Canada) 3. Institute of Psychology, Kazimierz Wielki University, Bydgoszcz (Poland)
ORIGINS OF DRUMMING Percussion instruments (e.g., idiophones) are present in all world’s cultures, and are likely to be the oldest musical instruments known to man (apart from voice) (Miller 2000). Accordingly, drumming is one of the most ancient form of music performance (Fitch, 2006). Accurate performance on drums requires excellent motor control, as well as fine time perception and production skills. For example, the ability to synchronize with others to a shared beat is necessary for group performance. This ability is likely a key elements which may have played a role at the origins of music (Mithen, 2006). That drumming and sensorimotor synchronization may find their roots in biology suggests that these activities should be widespread in the general population. This possibility is confirmed by preliminary evidence that the majority can synchronize with isochronous sequences and with the beat of music (Sowi!ski & Dalla Bella 2008). BACKGROUND IN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Humans, as soon as in the first year of life, exhibit sensitivity to auditory temporal patterns. For example, infants respond to violations of repetitive timing patters (i.e., meter; Hannon & Trehub, 2005), and can code meter in auditory patterns via body movement (Phillips-Silver & Trainor, 2005). Still at this age there are no clear signs of sustained synchronization with auditory patterns. It is only around 2.5 years that children start adjusting their movement to the beat of an auditory stimulus, in particular in a social setting (i.e., when drumming with a social partner, Kirschner & Tomasello, 2009). At 4 years, children are able synchronize with sequences in the vicinity of their preferred spontaneous tempo (McAuley et al. 2006). The range of synchronization rates widens with age; yet, at 8 years of age synchronization is still worse than in adults (Drake et al. 2000). Only after 12 years children’s ability to synchronize is comparable to that of adults. AIMS We aimed to describe time perception and performance in IF, a 5-year-old drummer showing very precocious and outstanding musical abilities. At age 4, IF exhibited astounding performance abilities, which attracted the attention of world-class percussion teachers, who presently provide him with cutting-edge training. MAIN CONTRIBUTION IF and 2 comparison groups (5 age-matched controls, and 20 university students without musical training) were asked to perform sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) tasks. In addition, their perceptual abilities were tested with anisochrony detection tasks. In SMS tasks participants were asked to play on a drum pad in correspondence with isochronously presented sounds (with various IOIs), with the musical beat of familiar and unfamiliar musical excerpts, and with the main metrical stress of familiar spoken segments. In the anisochrony detection task, participants had to detect an anisochrony in 5-tone sequences. IF was more accurate and less variable in SMS tasks than both comparison groups for most of the presented stimuli. Moreover, IF exhibited higher sensitivity to anisochronies than age-matched controls. Still, his performance in detecting anisochronies was comparable to that of adult non-musicians. IMPLICATIONS We found that IF, in spite of his young age, entrains to regular temporal patterns (e.g., musical beat) more accurately than adult nonmusicians do. IF’s performance in synchronization tasks cannot be fully explained by his ability to detect deviations from isochrony (which is comparable to adult performance). Other mechanisms (e.g., better motor control or variability of the internal clock) are likely responsible for IF’s precocious ability to synchronize with regular auditory patterns.
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These results shed new light on the relations between skilled performance in drumming and the ability to synchronize with regular temporal patterns during development. In addition they allow to examine the effect of musical talent and early/late training on the development of timing and synchronization mechanisms. This information will be useful in improving existing training methods for percussionists. REFERENCES Drake, C., Jones, M. R., & Baruch, C. (2000). The development of rhythmic attending in auditory sequences: Attunement, referent period, focal attending. Cognition, 77(3), 251-288. Fitch, W. T. (2006). The biology and evolution of music: A comparative perspective. Cognition, 100(1), 173-215. Hannon, E. E., & Trehub, S. E. (2005). Metrical categories in infancy and adulthood. Psychological Science, 16, 4855. Kirschner, S., & Tomasello, M. (2009). Joint drumming: Social context facilitates synchronization in preschool children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102(3), 299-314. McAuley, J.D., Jones, M.R. , Holub, S. Johnson, H., Miller, N. S. (2006). The time of our lives: Lifespan development of timing and event tracking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 135 (3), 327-347. Miller, G. (2000). Evolution of human music through sexual selection. (pp. 329-360). In Wallin, Merker & Brown (Eds.) The origins of music. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Mithen, S. (2006). The Singing Neanderthals. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Phillips-Silver, J., & Trainor, L.J. (2005). Feeling the beat in music: Movement influences rhythm perception in infants. Science, 308, 1430. Sowi!ski, J., & Dalla Bella, S. (2008). Brains out of sync, but still in tune. Poster. “The Neurosciences and Music III”, Montreal (Canada), June 25-28.
BIOGRAPHIES Jakub Sowi!ski
[email protected] Jakub Sowi!ski is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Finance and Management in Warsaw (Poland). He completed a M.Sc. in Psychology (University of Finance and Management, Poland), and worked with on sensorimotor synchronization abilities in the the general population. His research mainly focuses on timing in music perception and performance. Simone Dalla Bella
[email protected] Simone Dalla Bella is Associate Professor in the Department of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Finance and Management in Warsaw (Poland), and Associate Member of BRAMS laboratories (Montreal, Canada). He completed his Ph.D. (University of Montreal) under the supervision of Isabelle Peretz and received post-doctoral training under the supervision of Tomas Paus (Montreal Neurological Institute) and Caroline Palmer (Ohio-State University). Simone Dalla Bella’s present research interests concern music performance (in particular singing and sensory-motor synchronization) in normal and impaired individuals. Ilona Laskowska
[email protected]
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