title: Motor simulation theories of musical beat perception.
abstract: There is growing interest in whether the motor system plays an essential role in rhythm perception. The motor system is active during the perception of rhythms, but is such motor activity merely a sign of unexecuted motor planning, or does it play a causal role in shaping the perception of rhythm? We present evidence for a causal role of motor planning and simulation, and review theories of internal simulation for beat-based timing prediction. Brain stimulation studies have the potential to conclusively test if the motor system plays a causal role in beat perception and ground theories to their neural underpinnings.
authors.affiliation: a Cognitive and Information Sciences , University of California , Merced , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Jessica M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.affiliation: b Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, Institute for Neural Computation , University of California , San Diego , CA , USA.
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Iversen
authors.affiliation: a Cognitive and Information Sciences , University of California , Merced , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Ramesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Balasubramaniam
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009146:Music; D065908:Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
keywords: Auditory perception; motor planning; motor simulation; rhythm; timing