title: BAASTA: Battery for the Assessment of Auditory Sensorimotor and Timing Abilities.
abstract: The Battery for the Assessment of Auditory Sensorimotor and Timing Abilities (BAASTA) is a new tool for the systematic assessment of perceptual and sensorimotor timing skills. It spans a broad range of timing skills aimed at differentiating individual timing profiles. BAASTA consists of sensitive time perception and production tasks. Perceptual tasks include duration discrimination, anisochrony detection (with tones and music), and a version of the Beat Alignment Task. Perceptual thresholds for duration discrimination and anisochrony detection are estimated with a maximum likelihood procedure (MLP) algorithm. Production tasks use finger tapping and include unpaced and paced tapping (with tones and music), synchronization-continuation, and adaptive tapping to a sequence with a tempo change. BAASTA was tested in a proof-of-concept study with 20 non-musicians (Experiment 1). To validate the results of the MLP procedure, less widespread than standard staircase methods, three perceptual tasks of the battery (duration discrimination, anisochrony detection with tones, and with music) were further tested in a second group of non-musicians using 2 down / 1 up and 3 down / 1 up staircase paradigms (n = 24) (Experiment 2). The results show that the timing profiles provided by BAASTA allow to detect cases of timing/rhythm disorders. In addition, perceptual thresholds yielded by the MLP algorithm, although generally comparable to the results provided by standard staircase, tend to be slightly lower. In sum, BAASTA provides a comprehensive battery to test perceptual and sensorimotor timing skills, and to detect timing/rhythm deficits.
authors.affiliation: EuroMov Laboratory, University of Montpellier, 700 Avenue du Pic Saint Loup, 34090, Montpellier, France. simone.dalla-bella@umontpellier.fr.|Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Paris, Bd. Saint-Michel 103, 75005, Paris, France. simone.dalla-bella@umontpellier.fr.|Department of Cognitive Psychology, WSFiZ, Ul. Pawia 55, 01-030, Warsaw, Poland. simone.dalla-bella@umontpellier.fr.|International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research (BRAMS), Montreal, Canada. simone.dalla-bella@umontpellier.fr.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dalla Bella
authors.affiliation: EuroMov Laboratory, University of Montpellier, 700 Avenue du Pic Saint Loup, 34090, Montpellier, France.|Department of Cognitive Psychology, WSFiZ, Ul. Pawia 55, 01-030, Warsaw, Poland.|Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstrasse 1a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.|Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, UK.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Farrugia
authors.affiliation: EuroMov Laboratory, University of Montpellier, 700 Avenue du Pic Saint Loup, 34090, Montpellier, France.|Department of Cognitive Psychology, WSFiZ, Ul. Pawia 55, 01-030, Warsaw, Poland.|Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstrasse 1a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Charles-Etienne
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Benoit
authors.affiliation: EuroMov Laboratory, University of Montpellier, 700 Avenue du Pic Saint Loup, 34090, Montpellier, France.|NaturalPad, SAS, 700 Avenue du Pic Saint-Loup, 34090, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Valentin
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Begel
authors.affiliation: EuroMov Laboratory, University of Montpellier, 700 Avenue du Pic Saint Loup, 34090, Montpellier, France.|Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstrasse 1a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Verga
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstrasse 1a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Eleanor
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Harding
authors.affiliation: EuroMov Laboratory, University of Montpellier, 700 Avenue du Pic Saint Loup, 34090, Montpellier, France. sonja.kotz@maastrichtuniversity.nl.|Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstrasse 1a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany. sonja.kotz@maastrichtuniversity.nl.|Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Neuropsychology & Psychopharmacology, Maastricht University, P.O. 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands. sonja.kotz@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
authors.forename: Sonja A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kotz
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D001307:Auditory Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D011581:Psychological Tests; D013998:Time Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Beat deafness; Music cognition; Rhythm perception; Rhythm performance; Sensorimotor synchronization; Timing