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A brief and efficient stimulus set to create the inverted U-shaped relationship between rhythmic complexity and the sensation of groove

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Jan Stupacher

Center for Music in the Brain

When listening to music, we often feel a strong desire to move our body in relation to the pulse of the rhythm. In music psychology, this desire to move is described by the term groove. Previous research suggests that the sensation of groove is strongest when a rhythm is moderately complex, i.e., when the rhythm hits the sweet spot between being too simple to be engaging and too complex to be interpretable. This means that the relationship between rhythmic complexity and the sensation of groove can be described by an inverted U-shape (Matthews 2019). Here, we recreate this inverted U-shape with a stimulus set that was reduced from 54 to only nine rhythms. Thereby, we provide an efficient toolkit for future studies to induce and measure different levels of groove sensations. Pleasure and movement induction in relation to rhythmic complexity are emerging topics in music cognition and neuroscience. Investigating the sensation of groove is important for understanding the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying motor timing and reward processes in the general population, and in patients with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and motor impairment after stroke. The experimental manipulation of groove also provides new approaches for research on social bonding in interpersonal movement interactions that feature music. Our brief stimulus set facilitates future research on these topics by enabling the creation of efficient and concise paradigms.

Description of the rhythms with metric weights and syncopation measures A) Low, moderate and high rhythmic complexity (RC) stimuli. Each onset is represented by a dot (●) with the corresponding metric weight noted below. The eight-note hi-hat (×) is part of each of the three stimuli. B and C) Calculations of the syncopation index following Fitch and Rosenfeld (2007) and Matthews et al. (2019) for the moderate and high rhythmic complexity stimuli. A syncopation occurs when a rest (here at the eight-note level) is preceded by the onset of a note of lesser weight. The summed up differences between syncopated notes and rests make the syncopation index.

…

Groove ratings as a function of rhythmic and harmonic complexity Dots represent mean groove ratings. Boxplots: The centerline represents the median. The lower and upper ends of the boxes correspond to the first and third quartiles. Whiskers represent lowest and highest values within 1.5 × interquartile range (IQR) from the lower and upper quartiles, respectively. Circles represent values outside 1.5 × IQR. ns = nonsignificant, * p < .001.

…

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

A brief and efficient stimulus set to create the

inverted U-shaped relationship between

rhythmic complexity and the sensation of

groove

Jan StupacherID

1,2

*, Markus Wrede

, Peter Vuust

1Department of Clinical Medicine, Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of

Music Aarhus, Aalborg, Denmark, 2Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria, 3Department

of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

*stupacher@clin.au.dk

Abstract

When listening to music, we often feel a strong desire to move our body in relation to the

pulse of the rhythm. In music psychology, this desire to move is described by the term

groove. Previous research suggests that the sensation of groove is strongest when a rhythm

is moderately complex, i.e., when the rhythm hits the sweet spot between being too simple

to be engaging and too complex to be interpretable. This means that the relationship

between rhythmic complexity and the sensation of groove can be described by an inverted

U-shape (Matthews 2019). Here, we recreate this inverted U-shape with a stimulus set that

was reduced from 54 to only nine rhythms. Thereby, we provide an efficient toolkit for future

studies to induce and measure different levels of groove sensations. Pleasure and move-

ment induction in relation to rhythmic complexity are emerging topics in music cognition and

neuroscience. Investigating the sensation of groove is important for understanding the

neurophysiological mechanisms underlying motor timing and reward processes in the gen-

eral population, and in patients with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s

disease and motor impairment after stroke. The experimental manipulation of groove also

provides new approaches for research on social bonding in interpersonal movement interac-

tions that feature music. Our brief stimulus set facilitates future research on these topics by

enabling the creation of efficient and concise paradigms.

Introduction

In music psychology, the experience of groove is often defined as a pleasurable state of wanting

to move one’s body in relation to the pulse of a musical rhythm [1–4]. Recent findings suggest

that we feel a strong desire to move our bodies when listening to music with a moderate

amount of rhythmic complexity, whereas in comparison, low and high amounts of rhythmic

complexity decrease our desire to move [5,6]. Consequently, the relationship between rhyth-

mic complexity and the sensation of groove can be described by an inverted U-shape. Besides

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OPEN ACCESS

Citation: Stupacher J, Wrede M, Vuust P (2022) A

brief and efficient stimulus set to create the

inverted U-shaped relationship between rhythmic

complexity and the sensation of groove. PLoS ONE

17(5): e0266902. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.

pone.0266902

Editor: Jessica Adrienne Grahn, University of

Western Ontario, CANADA

Received: November 18, 2021

Accepted: March 29, 2022

Published: May 19, 2022

access article distributed under the terms of the

Creative Commons Attribution License, which

permits unrestricted use, distribution, and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original

author and source are credited.

Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are

within the paper and its Supporting information file.

Funding: The Center for Music in the Brain is

funded by the Danish National Research

Foundation (DNRF 117, awarded to PV). JS is

supported by an Erwin Schro¨dinger fellowship

from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [J-4288].

This research was funded in whole, or in part, by

the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [J-4288, awarded

to JS]. For the purpose of open access, the author

has applied a CC BY public copyright license to any

rhythmic complexity, Matthews and colleagues [5] investigated the influence of harmonic com-

plexity on the sensation of groove and found that wanting to move ratings were similar for low

and moderately complex harmonies, but dropped for a highly complex harmony. The present

study tests whether these effects of rhythmic and harmonic complexity can be replicated with a

subset of nine stimuli from the original set of 54 stimuli used by Matthews and colleagues [5].

Rhythmic complexity, and the related affective and behavioral responses, play important

roles in recent research on music-supported movement therapies, social bonding, and neuro-

physiological mechanisms underlying motor timing and reward processes. Predicting how

music unfolds and develops over time is a rewarding, pleasurable process [7,8] that involves

neural auditory-motor interactions [9,10]. With music that is rated as high-groove, neural

auditory-motor interactions are more affected than with low-groove music [4]. Music that

facilitates the sensation of groove might therefore be especially effective in therapeutic pro-

grams for improving body movements in individuals with conditions such as Parkinson’s dis-

ease, Huntington’s disease and motor impairment after stroke [11,12]. Importantly, in

patients with motor impairments, the most groove-inducing rhythms might be shifted from

moderate to low rhythmic complexities when compared with healthy control participants [13].

A similar shift of the inverted U-shape towards simpler rhythms could also occur for cochlear

implant users—but research on this topic is lacking.

Rhythmic complexity is also important for social bonding in interpersonal movement inter-

actions that feature music. A clear perception of the temporal structure of music is crucial for

providing a meaningful social context in which the movements of oneself and others can be

interpreted and evaluated. Interestingly, recent findings suggest that a moderate level of rhyth-

mic complexity may be favorable for social bonding when moving together with music: The

feeling of social closeness tends to follow an inverted U-shape in relation to rhythmic complex-

ity [14]. Although the inverted U-shape of rhythmic complexity can also be found in social

interactions, it remains an open question whether and how groove experiences differ in indi-

vidual and social contexts.

Combined with neuroimaging, groove research can help us understand the role of motor

and reward networks when making and listening to music [4,15,16]. In neuroimaging, but

also in behavioral studies, one of the outstanding questions is how rhythmic and harmonic

complexity contribute to motor behavior, reward and pleasure. To facilitate future research on

all of the previously mentioned topics, we present a brief stimulus set of nine rhythms that

reproduces the effects of rhythmic and harmonic complexity found in an experiment by Mat-

thews and colleagues [5] with a stimulus set of 54 rhythms.

Method

Participants

Data were collected in an online questionnaire completed by 174 participants. Five partici-

pants reported a history of motor-related neurological diseases and were excluded. The result-

ing 169 participants (116 female, 53 male) had a mean age of 25.1 years (SD = 6.1). One

hundred fifty-one participants were Danish; the rest of the participants came from 13 different

countries (Austria [n = 1], Belgium [1], Canada [1], France [2], Germany [3], Iceland [1], Lith-

uania [1], Mexico [1], Norway [2], South Korea [1], Sweden, UK [2], and Uruguay [1]).

Twenty-five participants reported playing an instrument and singing, 75 participants reported

playing an instrument but not singing, 14 participants reported singing but not playing an

instrument, and 55 participants reported not playing an instrument and not singing. The sam-

ple size was comparable to Matthews and colleagues’ [5] sample of 201 participants. The study

was conducted in accordance with the guidelines from the Declaration of Helsinki and the

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Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from

this submission.

Competing interests: The authors have declared

that no competing interests exist.

Danish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and Aarhus University’s Policy for research

integrity, freedom of research and responsible conduct of research. All collected data included

no personally identifiable information.

Stimuli

Nine audio clips were selected based on subjective musicality by author MW from a set of 54

stimuli used by Matthews and colleagues [5]. The audio clips were ten seconds long and con-

sisted of rhythmic patterns played with one chord in a piano timbre. Every rhythmic pattern

consisted of five onsets per bar, which were repeated for four bars in total. The rhythmic and

harmonic complexity of the patterns had three levels. Rhythmic complexity varied between low,

moderate and high levels of syncopation (Fig 1A). The chords were in D major and varied

between low harmonic complexity (D major triad and two inversions), moderate harmonic

complexity (four note chords with extensions), and high harmonic complexity (flat ninth inter-

val between chord note and extension). For more information about the stimuli, see Matthews

et al. [5]. Roughness was calculated with the MIR-toolbox [17] to estimate harmonic complexity

of the selected stimuli. Pulse clarity (MIR toolbox) and syncopation index [5,18] were calcu-

lated to estimate rhythmic complexity. Mean roughness was lowest for low harmonic complexity

(188), followed by moderate (213), and high (266) harmonic complexity. Pulse clarity (PC) was

highest and syncopation index (SI) was lowest for low rhythmic complexity (PC: 0.72, SI: 0),

followed by moderate (PC: 0.31, SI: 4), and high (PC: 0.28, SI: 18) rhythmic complexity. For

details on the calculations of the syncopation indices, see Fig 1B and 1C. The nine stimuli can

be found online at https://researchbox.org/487.

Procedure

Each audio clip was presented once in randomized order. After each stimulus, participants

rated the groove of the audio clip on a continuous slider ranging from “not groovy” on the left

to “very groovy” on the right. The numerical values ranged from 1 on the left side to 101 on

the right side, but participants could not see these values. Groove was defined as “wanting to

move in time with the music” [1,2,4]. In contrast to Matthews et al. [5] who asked, “How

much does this musical pattern make you want to move?” the present study directly men-

tioned the term groove and connected it to the urge to move with a musical rhythm.

Results and discussion

In line with previous research by Matthews et al. [5] and Witek et al. [6], groove ratings fol-

lowed an inverted U-shape when plotted against rhythmic complexity, i.e. syncopation (Fig 2).

The strongest sensation of groove was reported for patterns with a moderate amount of rhyth-

mic complexity (M= 61.2, SD = 23.7), followed by low (M= 41.3, SD = 24.4) and high

(M= 20.1, SD = 20.5) rhythmic complexity. The manipulation of harmonic complexity also led

to similar results as in Matthews et al. (2019): Groove ratings were highest for low harmonic

complexity (M= 47.3, SD = 29.0) followed by moderate (M= 43.5, SD = 27.4) and high

(M= 31.8, SD = 26.4) harmonic complexity.

An ANOVA on groove ratings with the within-subject factors rhythmic complexity and har-

monic complexity revealed main effects of rhythmic complexity (F(2,1344) = 686.30, p<.001,

= .46) and harmonic complexity (F(2,1344) = 105.43, p<.001, η

= .07) as well as an interac-

tion between the two factors (F(4,1344) = 7.05, p<.001, η

= .01). With the large effect size of

= .46, the factor rhythmic complexity may be more important for the sensation of groove

than harmonic complexity, with a much smaller effect size of η

= .07. This finding is in accor-

dance with Matthews et al. [5], who suggest that “rhythm plays a primary role in generating

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the sensation of groove, with harmony providing a modulatory role through its effect on plea-

sure”. It is important to note that the inverted U-shape of rhythmic complexity might be more

prominent in a sample of professional musicians and less prominent in non-musicians in

comparison to our sample of mixed musical expertise [5].

Fig 1. Description of the rhythms with metric weights and syncopation measures. A) Low, moderate and high rhythmic complexity (RC) stimuli. Each onset is

represented by a dot (●) with the corresponding metric weight noted below. The eight-note hi-hat (×) is part of each of the three stimuli. B and C) Calculations of the

syncopation index following Fitch and Rosenfeld (2007) and Matthews et al. (2019) for the moderate and high rhythmic complexity stimuli. A syncopation occurs when

a rest (here at the eight-note level) is preceded by the onset of a note of lesser weight. The summed up differences between syncopated notes and rests make the

syncopation index.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266902.g001

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The interaction between the two factors was unpacked with Bonferroni-corrected paired t-

tests (see Fig 2). Differences in groove ratings between low and moderate harmonic complexity

were nonsignificant in stimuli with low and high rhythmic complexity, but significant in sti-

muli with moderate rhythmic complexity. All other pairwise comparisons between harmonic

complexity levels within each rhythmic complexity level were significant (p <.001). Data of the

individual participants can be found in S1 Table. In accordance with findings of Matthews

et al. [5], our study provides further evidence for the assumption of an inverted U-shape rela-

tionship between rhythmic complexity and the sensation of groove. This inverted U-shape can

be explained using the theory of predictive coding of music, in which it is proposed that music

perception and action are shaped by bottom-up sensory input on one hand, and top-down

predictive brain models on the other hand [19,20]. According to the predictive coding of

rhythm [20], a listener compares an internally generated predictive model with the actual sen-

sory input. Music with moderate rhythmic complexity is regular enough for a listener to create

a predictive mental model of beat and meter that is possible to move in time to, whereas the

syncopations within the rhythm result in prediction errors. These prediction errors can be

reduced either by updating the model to better align with the sensory input, or by changing

the input, for example by moving one’s body in time with the beat to add a proprioceptive

dimension. In these ways, reducing prediction errors increases top-down engagement,

embodiment, pleasure, and reward. If the rhythms are very simple, however, the predictions

and the input match almost perfectly, leading to few prediction errors, and therefore fewer

Fig 2. Groove ratings as a function of rhythmic and harmonic complexity. Dots represent mean groove ratings.

Boxplots: The centerline represents the median. The lower and upper ends of the boxes correspond to the first and

third quartiles. Whiskers represent lowest and highest values within 1.5 ×interquartile range (IQR) from the lower and

upper quartiles, respectively. Circles represent values outside 1.5 ×IQR. ns = nonsignificant,�p<.001.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266902.g002

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updates of the predictive model and less top-down engagement. If the rhythms are very com-

plex, the listener is unable to create an appropriate predictive model at all, precluding the pos-

sibility of updating the model. Compared to moderately complex rhythms, both very simple

and very complex rhythms may therefore reduce top-down engagement, pleasure, and embod-

ied experiences associated with updating and maintaining the predictive model.

Syncopation is one of the most discussed musical features related to groove [5,6,16,21–

23], but it is of course not the only one. Other rhythmic and sonic features connected to the

sensation of groove are energy in bass frequencies [24,25], event density [22,26] cf. [25],

beat salience / pulse clarity [26] cf. [22,25], and tempo [1] cf. [22] cf. [27]. Microtiming—

intended and expressive onset deviations from the metric grid in the range of a few tens of mil-

liseconds—is another often-discussed feature of groove. However, empirical studies come to

contradictory conclusions with positive, negative, and null effects of microtiming deviations

on groove ratings (see e.g., [28] for an overview). The brief stimulus set presented here can be

used to investigate how syncopation interacts with the above-mentioned features in evoking

the sensation of groove.

As the current musical stimuli are synthesized, their (micro)rhythmic and sonic features

can be easily adapted for future experiments. Their synthesized nature also minimizes poten-

tial effects of familiarity that can occur with popular music [29]. However, the high control

and internal validity associated with synthesized stimuli, a fully crossed randomized design,

and individual data collection come with a decrease in ecological validity. Future experiments

could therefore build on the recent findings by comparing synthesized versus performed ver-

sions of the stimulus set, and individual versus collective listening environments.

The application-oriented conclusion of the present study is that the inverted U-shaped rela-

tionship between rhythmic complexity and the sensation of groove can be shown efficiently

with a set of nine stimuli that are only rated once. The effects of harmonic complexity on

groove ratings measured with this small stimulus set are also similar to the effects of the origi-

nal study with 54 stimuli [5]. This is especially important for future studies on rhythm percep-

tion and the sensation of groove with time constraints and complex designs. The brief

stimulus set facilitates efficient combinations of groove paradigms and clinical applications,

such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and stroke therapies, or cochlear implant research. Partici-

pants in most of these groups particularly profit from short paradigms. Furthermore, the stim-

ulus set’s conciseness is ideal for large-scale online experiments comparing participants who,

for example, differ in cultural background, musical expertise, dance training, motor skills,

empathy, or age. These types of groove research paradigms will help us to better understand

the interplay between timing processes, movement, social behavior, and pleasure in music lis-

tening, music making, and dance.

Supporting information

S1 Table. Individual groove ratings of participants. The table shows all combinations of low,

moderate, and high rhythmic complexities (LR, MR, and HR, respectively) with low, moder-

ate, and high harmonic complexities (LH, MH, and HH, respectively). Ratings were given on a

continuous scale from 1 on the left to 101 on the right. Participants could not see these values.

(PDF)

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: Jan Stupacher, Markus Wrede, Peter Vuust.

Data curation: Markus Wrede.

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Formal analysis: Jan Stupacher.

Methodology: Jan Stupacher, Markus Wrede.

Supervision: Jan Stupacher.

Writing – original draft: Jan Stupacher.

Writing – review & editing: Jan Stupacher.

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Full-text available

Jan 2025
PLOS ONE

In cognitive science, the sensation of “groove” has been defined as the pleasurable urge to move to music. When listeners rate rhythmic stimuli on derived pleasure and urge to move, ratings on these dimensions are highly correlated. However, recent behavioural and brain imaging work has shown that these two components may be separable. To examine this potential separability, our study investigates the sensation of groove in people with specific musical anhedonia. Individuals with musical anhedonia have a blunted ability to derive pleasure from music but can still derive pleasure from other domains (e.g., sex and food). People with musical anhedonia were identified as those with scores in the lower 10% of scores on the Barcelona Musical Reward Questionnaire, but who had no deficits in music perception, no symptoms of depression, average levels of physical and social anhedonia, and sensitivity to punishment and reward. We predicted that if the two components of groove are separable, individuals with musical anhedonia would experience lower levels of derived pleasure but have comparable ratings of wanting to move compared to controls. Groove responses were measured in an online study (N = 148) using a set of experimenter-generated musical stimuli varying in rhythmic and harmonic complexity, which were validated in several previous studies. Surprisingly, we found no significant differences in groove response between individuals with musical anhedonia (n = 17) and a matched control group (n = 17). Mediation analyses for the anhedonia sample found that wanting to move ratings fully mediated the effect of rhythmic and harmonic complexity on pleasure ratings. Taken together, these results indicate that the urge to move may compensate for the blunted pleasure sensation in those with musical anhedonia. More generally, these results suggest that the urge to move is a primary source of pleasure in the groove response.

Null effect of perceived drum pattern complexity on the experience of groove

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2024
PLOS ONE

There is a broad consensus in groove research that the experience of groove, understood as a pleasurable urge to move in response to music, is to some extent related to the complexity of the rhythm. Specifically, music with medium rhythmic complexity has been found to motivate greater urge to move compared to low or high complexity music (inverted-U hypothesis). Studies that confirmed the inverted-U hypothesis usually based their measure of complexity on the rhythmic phenomenon of syncopation, where rhythms with more and/or stronger syncopation are considered to be more complex than less syncopated rhythms. However, syncopation is not the same as complexity and represents only one rhythmic device that makes music complex. This study attempts the verification of the inverted-U hypothesis independently from syncopation. It uses a new stimulus set of forty idiomatic popular music drum patterns whose perceptual complexity was measured experimentally in a previous study. The current study reports the results of a listening experiment with n = 179 participants, in which the inverted-U hypothesis was not confirmed. Complexity did not have any significant effect on listeners’ urge to move (p = 834). Results are discussed in the context of the psychological model of musical groove, which offers a nuance to this null result: simple drum patterns motivate listeners to dance because they convey metric clarity; complex patterns invite dancing because they are interesting. Yet, overall, the urge to move does not seem to depend on complexity, at least in the case of idiomatic drum patterns that are typically encountered in the Western popular music repertoire.

Inhibition of SMA modulates the urge to move, but not pleasure, in groove

Preprint

Full-text available

Mar 2025

The pleasurable urge to move to music ("groove") has been shown to be greatest for moderately complex musical rhythms. This is thought to occur because temporal predictions from the motor system reinforce our perception of the beat when there is a balance between expectation and surprise. The supplementary motor area (SMA) has been identified as the potential origin of these temporal predictions. Thus, to causally test the role of the SMA in the experience of groove, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation to disrupt activity in this region or an active control site (V1) before and after non-musicians listened to and rated musical clips that varied in rhythmic complexity and perceived groove. Following stimulation over left SMA, participants preferred moving to music with higher rhythmic complexity while after V1 stimulation, they preferred moving to music with lower rhythmic complexity. Pleasure ratings, however, were unaffected. These results suggest that the SMA weighs the precision of beat-based predictions generated by the dorsal auditory stream. Therefore, stimulating the left SMA may have disinhibited either the dorsal striatum or other nodes generating the beat-based predictions themselves. In summary, these findings provide causal evidence that the SMA plays a critical role in embodied rhythm processing.

Rhythmic qualities of jazz improvisation predict performer identity and style in source-separated audio recordings

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2024

Great musicians have a unique style and, with training, humans can learn to distinguish between these styles. What differences between performers enable us to make such judgements? We investigate this question by building a machine learning model that predicts performer identity from data extracted automatically from an audio recording. Such a model could be trained on all kinds of musical features, but here we focus specifically on rhythm, which (unlike harmony, melody and timbre) is relevant for any musical instrument. We demonstrate that a supervised learning model trained solely on rhythmic features extracted from 300 recordings of 10 jazz pianists correctly identified the performer in 59% of cases, six times better than chance. The most important features related to a performer’s ‘feel’ (ensemble synchronization) and ‘complexity’ (information density). Further analysis revealed two clusters of performers, with those in the same cluster sharing similar rhythmic traits, and that the rhythmic style of each musician changed relatively little over the duration of their career. Our findings highlight the possibility that artificial intelligence can perform performer identification tasks normally reserved for experts. Links to each recording and the corresponding predictions are available on an interactive map to support future work in stylometry.

The Role of the Motor System in the Processing of Rhythmic Complexity: A Critical Review

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Sep 2024

The desire to move to music appears to be a human universal. This behavioral response seems to be supported by a tight coupling of auditory and motor networks, even in the absence of overt movement. The prevailing theories explain this phenomenon either in terms of passive brain network entrainment to musical periodicity or motor system involvement in predictive coding. Both explanations recognize the role of rhythmic complexity in modulating motor activity. However, the precise nature of the relationship between rhythmic complexity and motor activity remains unclear. In this work, we conducted an fMRI literature review to examine this relationship. Out of 110 screened articles, 24 met inclusion criteria, reporting findings ranging from non-existent to linear or inverted-U-shaped. Underlying these findings, we encountered significant heterogeneity in the measurement and conceptualization of rhythmic complexity. We provide a summary of the relationships found, the approaches to measuring rhythmic complexity and the different types of tasks and stimuli used. We conclude that, in order to move forward, more agreement is needed regarding measures and notions of complexity.

Sound-based rehabilitation of unilateral spatial neglect: A systematic review of the literature

Article

Feb 2025

Purpose: Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) following stroke has a high prevalence and poses significant functional challenges, highlighting the need for effective rehabilitation strategies. Current approaches often fail to meet these needs, prompting the investigation of innovative interventions. This systematic review synthesizes research on therapeutic effects of sound stimulation, elucidating relevant outcomes, influential factors and efficacy, and exploring avenues for novel sound-based rehabilitation strategies. Method: A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. Literature searches were performed across five databases (PubMed, Web-of-Science, Cochrane Library, PEDro, and Embase) from July 2023 to February 2024. Articles meeting inclusion criteria were appraised using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist. Results and conclusion: Six studies involving 22 post-stroke USN patients highlighted the therapeutic potential of sound stimulation, despite variability in reported outcomes. Three key factors influencing therapy success were identified: sound characteristics, transmission technology, and rehabilitation approach. Early patients' engagement in therapy and sound-based stimulation of actions in different neglected parts of space that the patients previously neglected appear essential to the success of the therapy success. However, further research is needed using more robust methodologies, particularly to explore the potential of technological and clinical innovations such as auditory virtual reality and targeted individual therapies.

Effects of perceived groove in music on cycling performance and intermuscular coherence between trunk and lower limb muscles

Article

Feb 2025
J SCI MED SPORT

Auditory Rhythm Encoding during the Last Trimester of Human Gestation: From Tracking the Basic Beat to Tracking Hierarchical Nested Temporal Structures

Article

Dec 2024
J NEUROSCI

Rhythm perception and synchronization to periodicity hold fundamental neurodevelopmental importance for language acquisition, musical behavior, and social communication. Rhythm is omnipresent in the fetal auditory world and newborns demonstrate sensitivity to auditory rhythmic cues. During the last trimester of gestation, the brain begins to respond to auditory stimulation and to code the auditory environment. When and how during this period do the neural capacities for rhythm processing develop? We conducted a cross-sectional study in 46 neonates (24 male) born between 27 and 35 weeks gestational age (wGA), measuring their neural responses to auditory rhythms with high-density electroencephalography during sleep. We developed measures to evaluate neural synchronization to nested rhythmic periodicities, including the fast isochronous beat and slower metrical (beat grouping) structures. We show that neural synchronization to beat and meter becomes stronger with increasing GA, converging on small phase differences between stimulus and neural responses near term, similar to those observed in adults. Dividing the cohort into subpopulations born before and after 33 wGA revealed that both younger and older groups showed neural synchronization to the fast periodicity related to the isochronous beat, whereas only the older group showed significant neural synchronization to the slower meter frequencies related to beat groupings, suggesting that encoding of nested periodicities arrives during late gestation. Together, our results shed light on the rapid evolution of neural coding of external hierarchical auditory rhythms during the third trimester of gestation, starting from the age when the thalamocortical axons establish the first synapses with the cortical plate.

The Effect of Perceived Groove in Music on Effective Brain Connectivity during Cycling: An fNIRS Study

Article

Nov 2024
MED SCI SPORT EXER

Introduction Perceived groove, a complex and integrated musical characteristic, is considered a core factor in inducing synchronization between movement and music. This study aimed to employ functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to explore the effective connectivity (EC) changes among brain regions during cycling activities under different perceived groove conditions. Methods In a randomized crossover design, 18 university students performed 3-min cycling tasks under high (HG) and low (LG) perceived groove music conditions. Revolutions per minute (RPM), coefficient of variation of pedaling cadence (CVPC), and sensorimotor coupling index (SMCI) were measured. Granger causality analyses were performed on the fNIRS data from the cycling task to obtain EC matrices at the brain region and channel (Ch) levels. Results The RPM was significantly higher, and CVPC and SMCI were significantly lower in HG than in LG. The EC values of the Brodmann Area (BA) 8→the left prefrontal cortex (lPFC), the superior portion of BA 6 (BA 6_Sup)→lPFC, and BA 1-3→lPFC were significantly higher in HG than in LG. Channel analyses indicated that the EC values of Ch 14→Ch 9, Ch 41→Ch 9, Ch 14→Ch 10, Ch 41→Ch 10, Ch 31→Ch 10, and Ch 35→Ch 23 were significantly higher in HG than in LG. Correlation analysis revealed that the EC values of the channels included in BA 6_Sup→lPFC were significantly correlated with cycling performance metrics. Conclusions The EC changes from BA 6_Sup to lPFC may play a critical role in the process through which perceived groove affects the synchronization of cycling to music.

EXPERIENCE OF GROOVE QUESTIONNAIRE: INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT AND INITIAL VALIDATION

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2020
MUSIC PERCEPT

MUSIC OFTEN TRIGGERS A PLEASURABLE URGE IN listeners to move their bodies in response to the rhythm. In music psychology, this experience is commonly referred to as groove. This study presents the Experience of Groove Questionnaire, a newly developed self-report questionnaire that enables respondents to subjectively assess how strongly they feel an urge to move and pleasure while listening to music. The development of the questionnaire was carried out in several stages: candidate questionnaire items were generated on the basis of the groove literature, and their suitability was judged by fifteen groove and rhythm research experts. Two listening experiments were carried out in order to reduce the number of items, to validate the instrument, and to estimate its reliability. The final questionnaire consists of two scales with three items each that reliably measure respondents' urge to move (Cronbach's ¼ :92) and their experience of pleasure (¼ :97) while listening to music. The two scales are highly correlated (r ¼ :80), which indicates a strong association between motor and emotional responses to music. The scales of the Experience of Groove Questionnaire can independently be applied in groove research and in a variety of other research contexts in which listeners' subjective experience of music-induced movement and enjoyment need to be addressed: for example the study of the interaction between music and motivation in sports and research on therapeutic applications of music in people with neurological movement disorders.

Cultural Familiarity and Individual Musical Taste Differently Affect Social Bonding when Moving to Music

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2020

Social bonds are essential for our health and well-being. Music provides a unique and implicit context for social bonding by introducing temporal and affective frameworks, which facilitate movement synchronization and increase affiliation. How these frameworks are modulated by cultural familiarity and individual musical preferences remain open questions. In three experiments, we operationalized the affective aspects of social interactions as ratings of interpersonal closeness between two walking stick-figures in a video. These figures represented a virtual self and a virtual other person. The temporal aspects of social interactions were manipulated by movement synchrony: while the virtual self always moved in time with the beat of instrumental music, the virtual other moved either synchronously or asynchronously. When the context-providing music was more enjoyed, social closeness increased strongly with a synchronized virtual other, but only weakly with an asynchronized virtual other. When the music was more familiar, social closeness was higher independent of movement synchrony. We conclude that the social context provided by music can strengthen interpersonal closeness by increasing temporal and affective self-other overlaps. Individual musical preferences might be more relevant for the influence of movement synchrony on social bonding than musical familiarity.

The sensation of groove engages motor and reward networks

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2020

The sensation of groove has been defined as the pleasurable desire to move to music, suggesting that both motor timing and reward processes are involved in this experience. Although many studies have investigated rhythmic timing and musical reward separately, none have examined whether the associated cortical and subcortical networks are engaged while participants listen to groove-based music. In the current study, musicians and non-musicians listened to and rated experimentally controlled groove-based stimuli while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Medium complexity rhythms elicited higher ratings of pleasure and wanting to move and were associated with activity in regions linked to beat perception and reward, as well as prefrontal and parietal regions implicated in generating and updating stimuli-based expectations. Activity in basal ganglia regions of interest, including the nucleus accumbens, caudate and putamen, was associated with ratings of pleasure and wanting to move, supporting their important role in the sensation of groove. We propose a model in which different cortico-striatal circuits interact to support the mechanisms underlying groove, including internal generation of the beat, beat-based expectations, and expectation-based affect. These results show that the sensation of groove is supported by motor and reward networks in the brain and, along with our proposed model, suggest that the basal ganglia are crucial nodes in networks that interact to generate this powerful response to music.

Feel the Bass: Music Presented to Tactile and Auditory Modalities Increases Aesthetic Appreciation and Body Movement

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2019

Music is both heard and felt-tactile sensation is especially pronounced for bass frequencies. Although bass frequencies have been associated with enhanced bodily movement, time perception, and groove (the musical quality that compels movement), the underlying mechanism remains unclear. In 2 experiments, we presented high-groove music to auditory and tactile senses and examined whether tactile sensation affected body movement and ratings of enjoyment and groove. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 22) sat in a parked car and listened to music clips over sound-isolating earphones (auditory-only condition), and over earphones plus a subwoofer that stimulated the body (auditory-tactile condition). Experiment 2 (N = 18) also presented music in auditory-only and auditory-tactile conditions, but used a vibrotactile backpack to stimulate the body and included 2 loudness levels. Participants tapped their finger with each clip, rated each clip, and, in Experiment 1, we additionally video recorded spontaneous body movement. Results showed that the auditory-tactile condition yielded more forceful tapping, more spontaneous body movement, and higher ratings of groove and enjoyment. Loudness had a small, but significant, effect on ratings. In sum, findings suggest that bass felt in the body produces a multimodal auditory-tactile percept that promotes movement through the close connection between tactile and motor systems. We discuss links to embodied aesthetics and applications of tactile stimulation to boost rhythmic movement and reduce hearing damage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Neural entrainment is associated with subjective groove and complexity for performed but not mechanical musical rhythms

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2019
EXP BRAIN RES

Both movement and neural activity in humans can be entrained by the regularities of an external stimulus, such as the beat of musical rhythms. Neural entrainment to auditory rhythms supports temporal perception, and is enhanced by selective attention and by hierarchical temporal structure imposed on rhythms. However, it is not known how neural entrainment to rhythms is related to the subjective experience of groove (the desire to move along with music or rhythm), the perception of a regular beat, the perception of complexity, and the experience of pleasure. In two experiments, we used musical rhythms (from Steve Reich’s Clapping Music) to investigate whether rhythms that are performed by humans (with naturally variable timing) and rhythms that are mechanical (with precise timing), elicit differences in (1) neural entrainment, as measured by inter-trial phase coherence, and (2) subjective ratings of the complexity, preference, groove, and beat strength of rhythms. We also combined results from the two experiments to investigate relationships between neural entrainment and subjective perception of musical rhythms. We found that mechanical rhythms elicited a greater degree of neural entrainment than performed rhythms, likely due to the greater temporal precision in the stimulus, and the two types only elicited different ratings for some individual rhythms. Neural entrainment to performed rhythms, but not to mechanical ones, correlated with subjective desire to move and subjective complexity. These data, therefore, suggest multiple interacting influences on neural entrainment to rhythms, from low-level stimulus properties to high-level cognition and perception.

The sensation of groove is affected by the interaction of rhythmic and harmonic complexity

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2019
PLOS ONE

The pleasurable desire to move to music, also known as groove, is modulated by rhythmic complexity. How the sensation of groove is influenced by other musical features, such as the harmonic complexity of individual chords, is less clear. To address this, we asked people with a range of musical experience to rate stimuli that varied in both rhythmic and harmonic complexity. Rhythm showed an inverted U-shaped relationship with ratings of pleasure and wanting to move, whereas medium and low complexity chords were rated similarly. Pleasure mediated the effect of harmony on wanting to move and high complexity chords attenuated the effect of rhythm on pleasure. We suggest that while rhythmic complexity is the primary driver, harmony, by altering emotional valence, modulates the attentional and temporal prediction processes that underlie rhythm perception. Investigation of the effects of musical training with both regression and group comparison showed that training increased the inverted U effect for harmony and rhythm, respectively. Taken together, this work provides important new information about how the prediction and entrainment processes involved in rhythm perception interact with musical pleasure.

Groove in drum patterns as a function of both rhythmic properties and listeners’ attitudes

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2018
PLOS ONE

Music psychology defines groove as humans’ pleasureable urge to move their body in synchrony with music. Past research has found that rhythmic syncopation, event density, beat salience, and rhythmic variability are positively associated with groove. This exploratory study investigates the groove effect of 248 reconstructed drum patterns from different popular music styles (pop, rock, funk, heavy metal, rock’n’roll, hip hop, soul, R&B). It aims at identifying factors that might be relevant for groove and worth investigating in a controlled setting in the future. Drum patterns of eight bars duration, chosen from 248 popular music tracks, have been transcribed and audio reconstructions have been created on the basis of sound samples. During an online listening experiment, 665 participants rated the reconstructions a total of 8,329 times using a groove questionnaire. Results show that, among 15 tested variables, syncopation (R² = 0.010) and event density (R² = 0.011) were positively associated with the groove ratings. These effects were stronger in participants who were music professionals, compared to amateur musicians or mere listeners. A categorisation of the stimuli according to structural aspects was also associated with groove (R² = 0.018). Beat salience, residual microtiming and rhythmic variability showed no effect on the groove ratings. Participants’ familiarity with a drum pattern had a positive influence on the groove ratings (η² = 0.051). The largest isolated effect was measured for participants’ style bias (R² = 0.123): groove ratings tended to be high if participants had the impression that the drum pattern belonged to a style they liked. Combined, the effects of style bias and familiarity (R² = 0.152) exceeded the other effects as predictors for groove by a wide margin. We conclude that listeners’ taste, musical biographies and expertise have a strong effect on their groove experience. This motivates groove research not to focus on the music alone, but to take the listeners into account as well.

Optimal Tempo for Groove: Its Relation to Directions of Body Movement and Japanese nori

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2018

The tendency for groove-based music to induce body movements has been linked to multiple acoustical factors. However, it is unclear how or whether tempo affects groove, although tempo significantly affects other aspects of music perception. To address this issue, the present study investigated effects of tempo, specific rhythmic organizations of patterns, and syncopation on groove and the induction of the sensation of wanting to move. We focused on the directions of body movement in particular by taking into account nori, which is an indigenous Japanese musical term used not only synonymously with groove, but also as a spatial metaphor indicating vertical or horizontal movement directions. Thus, the present study explored how groove was felt and defined, as well as how musical factors induced the sensation of wanting to move in cross-cultural context. A listening experiment was conducted using drum breaks as stimuli. Stimuli consisted of various rhythm patterns at six tempi from 60 to 200 BPM. The main findings are that: (1) an optimal tempo for groove existed for drum breaks at around 100–120 BPM, (2) an optimal tempo existed for the sensation of wanting to move the body in specific directions (i.e., back-and-forth and side-to-side), (3) groove and nori shared a similar concept of wanting to move but differed on several points (i.e., association with sense of pulse and fast tempo). Overall, the present study suggests that there is an optimal tempo for body movement related to groove. This finding has implications for the use of music or rhythmic stimuli to induce smooth motion in rehabilitation, therapy, or dance.

Taste and familiarity affect the experience of groove in popular music

Article

Apr 2019

Groove is a common experience in music listeners, often described as an enjoyable impulse to move in synchrony with the music. Research has suggested that the groove experience is influenced by listeners’ musical taste and their familiarity with a musical repertoire. This study reports the results from an online listening experiment in which 233 participants rated the groove quality of 208 short clips from different Western popular music styles. Findings show that participants’ familiarity with a song, its musical style, and listeners’ preference for that style have a considerable effect on the groove experience. Overall, pop and funk stimuli triggered a stronger groove experience than rock stimuli. Listeners had a tendency to give high groove ratings to music they had heard before and to music that belonged to a style they liked. Results also show that professional musicians had a tendency to experience more groove in response to funk compared to pop music, whereas non-musicians experienced more groove with pop compared to funk. Together, these effects explained approximately 15% of the groove ratings’ variance. In sum, listeners’ attitudes and their musical backgrounds have a considerable impact on their experience of groove.

Predictive Processes and the Peculiar Case of Music

Article

Nov 2018
TRENDS COGN SCI

We suggest that music perception is an active act of listening, providing an irresistible epistemic offering. When listening to music we constantly generate plausible hypotheses about what could happen next, while actively attending to music resolves the ensuing uncertainty. Within the predictive coding framework, we present a novel formulation of precision filtering and attentional selection, which explains why some lower-level auditory, and even higher-level music-syntactic processes elicited by irregular events are relatively exempt from top-down predictive processes. We review findings providing unique evidence for the attentional selection of salient auditory features. This formulation suggests that ‘listening’ is a more active process than traditionally conceived in models of perception.