Henkjan Honing

Newborn infants detect the beat in music

To shed light on how humans can learn to understand music, we need to discover what the perceptual capabilities with which infants are born. Beat induction, the detection of a regular pulse in an auditory signal, is considered a fundamental human trait that, arguably, played a decisive role in the origin of music. Theorists are divided on the issue whether this ability is innate or learned. We show that newborn infants develop expectation for the onset of rhythmic cycles (the downbeat), even when it is not marked by stress or other distinguishing spectral features. Omitting the downbeat elicits brain activity associated with violating sensory expectations. Thus, our results strongly support the view that beat perception is innate.

On tempo tracking: Tempogram representation and Kalman filtering

We formulate tempo tracking in a Bayesian framework where a tempo tracker is modeled as a stochastic dynamical system. The tempo is modeled as a hidden state variable of the system and is estimated by a Kalman filter. The Kalman filter operates on a Tempogram, a wavelet-like multiscale expansion of a real performance. An important advantage of our approach is that it is possible to formulate both off-line or real-time algorithms. The simulation results on a systematically collected set of MIDI piano performances of Yesterday and Michelle by the Beatles shows accurate tracking of approximately 90% of the beats.

The formation of rhythmic categories and metric priming

Two experiments on categorical rhythm perception are reported, the object of which was to investigate how listeners perceive discrete rhythmic categories while listening to rhythms performed on a continuous time scale. This is studied by considering the space of all temporal patterns (all possible rhythms made up of three intervals) and how they, in perception, are partitioned into categories, ie where the boundaries of these categories are located. This process of categorisation is formalised as the mapping from the continuous space of a series of time intervals to a discrete, symbolic domain of integer-ratio sequences. The methodological framework uses concepts from mathematics and psychology (eg convexity and entropy) that allow precise characterisations of the empirical results. In the first experiment, twenty-nine participants performed an identification task with 66 rhythmic stimuli (a systematic sampling of the performance space). The results show that listeners do not just perceive the time intervals between onsets of sounds as placed in a homogeneous continuum. Instead, they can reliably identify rhythmic categories, as a chronotopic time clumping map reveals. In a second experiment, the effect of metric priming was studied by presenting the same stimuli but preceded with a duple or triple metre subdivision. It is shown that presenting patterns in the context of a metre has a large effect on rhythmic categorisation: the presence of a specific musical metre primes the perception of specific rhythmic patterns.

Computational Models of Beat Induction: The Rule-Based Approach

This paper is a report of ongoing research on the computational modeling of beat induction which aims at achieving a better understanding of the perceptual processes involved by ordering and reformulating existing models. One family of rule-based beat induction models is described (Longuet-Higgins and Lee, 1982; Lee, 1985; Longuet-Higgins, 1994), along with the presentation of analysis methods that allow an evaluation of the models in terms of their inand output spaces, abstracting from internal detail. It builds on work described in (Desain and Honing, 1994b). The present paper elaborates these methods and presents the results obtained. It will be shown that they can be used to characterize the differences between these models, a point that was difficult to assess previously. Furthermore, the first results of using the method to improve the existing rule-based models are presented, by describing the most effective version of a specific rule, and the most effective parameter settings.

Does expressive timing in music performance scale proportionally with tempo

SummaryEvidence is presented that expressive timing in music is not relationally invariant with global tempo. Our results stem from an analysis of repeated performances of Beethovens variations on a Paisiello theme. Recordings were made of two pianists playing the pieces at three tempi. In contrast with the relational-invariance hypothesis (see Repp, 1994), between-tempo correlations were in general lower than within-tempo correlations. Analyses of variance of log-transformed inter-onset intervals (IOIs) showed significant interactions between tempo and IOI, i. e., evidence against a proportional relation between timing and tempo. Complex, but consistent, nonproportional patterns were shown in the analyses of the timing of the grace notes in the piece. The analysis suggests that timing aspects of music are closely linked to the musical structure and can be studied and manipulated only respecting this relation — not as a global timing pattern or tempo curve. Finally, it is shown that methodological issues of data collection and analysis had a significant influence on the results.

Are non-human primates capable of rhythmic entrainment? Evidence for the gradual audiomotor evolution hypothesis

We propose a decomposition of the neurocognitive mechanisms that might underlie interval-based timing and rhythmic entrainment. Next to reviewing the concepts central to the definition of rhythmic entrainment, we discuss recent studies that suggest rhythmic entrainment to be specific to humans and a selected group of bird species, but, surprisingly, is not obvious in non-human primates. On the basis of these studies we propose the gradual audiomotor evolution hypothesis that suggests that humans fully share interval-based timing with other primates, but only partially share the ability of rhythmic entrainment (or beat-based timing). This hypothesis accommodates the fact that non-human primates (i.e., macaques) performance is comparable to humans in single interval tasks (such as interval reproduction, categorization, and interception), but show differences in multiple interval tasks (such as rhythmic entrainment, synchronization, and continuation). Furthermore, it is in line with the observation that macaques can, apparently, synchronize in the visual domain, but show less sensitivity in the auditory domain. And finally, while macaques are sensitive to interval-based timing and rhythmic grouping, the absence of a strong coupling between the auditory and motor system of non-human primates might be the reason why macaques cannot rhythmically entrain in the way humans do.

Without it no music: beat induction as a fundamental musical trait

Beat induction (BI) is the cognitive skill that allows us to hear a regular pulse in music to which we can then synchronize. Perceiving this regularity in music allows us to dance and make music together. As such, it can be considered a fundamental musical trait that, arguably, played a decisive role in the origins of music. Furthermore, BI might be considered a spontaneously developing, domain‐specific, and species‐specific skill. Although both learning and perception/action coupling were shown to be relevant in its development, at least one study showed that the auditory system of a newborn is able to detect the periodicities induced by a varying rhythm. A related study with adults suggested that hierarchical representations for rhythms (meter induction) are formed automatically in the human auditory system. We will reconsider these empirical findings in the light of the question whether beat and meter induction are fundamental cognitive mechanisms.

Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) Detect Rhythmic Groups in Music, but Not the Beat

It was recently shown that rhythmic entrainment, long considered a human-specific mechanism, can be demonstrated in a selected group of bird species, and, somewhat surprisingly, not in more closely related species such as nonhuman primates. This observation supports the vocal learning hypothesis that suggests rhythmic entrainment to be a by-product of the vocal learning mechanisms that are shared by several bird and mammal species, including humans, but that are only weakly developed, or missing entirely, in nonhuman primates. To test this hypothesis we measured auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in two rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), probing a well-documented component in humans, the mismatch negativity (MMN) to study rhythmic expectation. We demonstrate for the first time in rhesus monkeys that, in response to infrequent deviants in pitch that were presented in a continuous sound stream using an oddball paradigm, a comparable ERP component can be detected with negative deflections in early latencies (Experiment 1). Subsequently we tested whether rhesus monkeys can detect gaps (omissions at random positions in the sound stream; Experiment 2) and, using more complex stimuli, also the beat (omissions at the first position of a musical unit, i.e. the ‘downbeat’; Experiment 3). In contrast to what has been shown in human adults and newborns (using identical stimuli and experimental paradigm), the results suggest that rhesus monkeys are not able to detect the beat in music. These findings are in support of the hypothesis that beat induction (the cognitive mechanism that supports the perception of a regular pulse from a varying rhythm) is species-specific and absent in nonhuman primates. In addition, the findings support the auditory timing dissociation hypothesis, with rhesus monkeys being sensitive to rhythmic grouping (detecting the start of a rhythmic group), but not to the induced beat (detecting a regularity from a varying rhythm).

Tempo curves considered harmful

In the literature of musicology, computer music research and the psychology of music, timing or tempo measurements are mostly presented in the form of continuous curves. The notion of these tempo curves is dangerous, despite its widespread use, because it lulls its users into the false impression that a continuous concept of temporal flow has an independent existence, a musical or psychological reality, and that time can be perceived independent of events carrying it. But if one bases a transformation or manipulation of timing on the implied characteristics of such a notion, one is doomed to fail.

Rhythmic context influences the auditory evoked potentials of musicians and nonmusicians

In this study, we investigated how rhythms are processed in the brain by measuring both behaviourally obtained ratings and auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) from the EEG. We presented probe beats on seven positions within a test bar. Two bars of either a duple- or triple meter rhythm preceded probe beats. We hypothesised that sequential processing would lead to meter effects at the 1/3 and 1/2bar positions, whereas hierarchical processing would lead to context effects on the 1/3, 1/2 and 2/3bar positions. We found that metric contexts affected behavioural ratings. This effect was more pronounced for rhythmic experts. In addition, both the AEP P3a and P3b component could be identified. Though metric context affected the P3a amplitudes, group effects were less clear. We found that the AEP P3a component is sensitive to violation of temporal expectancies. In addition, behavioural data and P3a correlation coefficients (CCs) suggest that temporal patterns are processed sequentially in nonmusicians but are processed in a hierarchical way in rhythmic experts.