Speech and music exploit distinct intrinsic timescales of the sensorimotor system

Authors

Wang, J., Chen, H., Ding, N.

Abstract

Speech and music consistently differ in their acoustic rhythms, despite the cross-cultural diversity in their surface forms. Here, we investigate whether speech and music rhythms are rooted in distinct intrinsic timescales of the sensorimotor system, which are separately recruited to support individual communication and group synchronization, respectively. Corpus analysis revealed that the timescales dominating speech (4-8 Hz) and music rhythms (< 2 Hz) separately emerge in infant laughter, babbling and cries, and that both speech and song rhythms mature at about age three. The functional division between the two timescales is further probed through sensorimotor synchronization experiments, in which participants vocalize or tap to sound sequences presented at different rates. The rhythm produced by individuals is strongest between 4 and 8 Hz. In contrast, the produced rhythm is best synchronized among participants below 2 Hz. Collectively, these findings reveal two characteristic timescales in the human sensorimotor system, i.e., a faster (4-8 Hz) timescale reflecting resonance in individual production and a slower (<2 Hz) timescale that fosters interpersonal synchronization. The two timescales provide plausible biological basis for the rhythms of speech and music.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 01 Jul 2026.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this preprint? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.