DOI: 10.5061/dryad.xgxd254ns
title: Effects of rhythm and accent patterns on tempo-keeping property of finger tapping

description: The tempo of music performance is often accelerated irrespective of
 players’ intention. Though the characteristics of the tempo deviation
 phenomenon have been investigated using a finger-tapping task, most such
 studies dealt with tapping with a fixed interval and intensity; few
 studies considered the effects of rhythm and accent, both important
 factors of music performance. Here, we asked how different rhythm and
 accent patterns affected the tempo-keeping property using a
 synchronization-continuation task paradigm: Participants were asked to
 keep tapping while reproducing the given rhythm/accent patterns designated
 by the target tones. Tapping tempo was significantly deviated depending on
 rhythm/accent patterns, but their magnitudes were only several percent in
 150 seconds, much smaller than those in real music performance. We also
 ran experiments under the conditions that participants need not reproduce
 the accent patterns but only response tones were accented. These auditory
 modulations affected the tempo deviation, implying that perceptual
 processes induced by the auditory feedback also influence the tempo
 maintenance. Inter-tap intervals (ITIs) were modulated by the accent
 pattern, but no clear relationship was observed between ITI fluctuations
 and long-term tempo deviation, suggesting that different mechanisms are
 involved. In sum, the present finding shows that non-uniform motor actions
 required for music articulation can disturb the long-term tempo
 maintenance but their effect is rather small. We also reported the tempo
 deviation when the response tone was modulated by loudness (crescendo vs.
 diminuendo) or pitch (ascending vs. descending).
description: # Effects of Rhythm and Accent Patterns on Tempo-Keeping Property of
 Finger Tapping
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xgxd254ns](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xgxd254ns) ## Description of the data and file structure #### Raw bar length data Files named "barlength_raw_expXY.csv" give the bar length data (unit: second) in three experiments of this study, where X means the experiment number and Y means the experimental condition (For example, exp1A means the condition A in Experiment 1). As for Experiment 3, A, B, ... and E mean Control, Crescendo, Diminuendo, Ascending and Descending, respectively. * 1st column: participant ID * 2nd column: trial number for each participant * 3rd to end columns: length of each bar * 1st row: index of the bar (a negative number means the synchronization phase, and 0 or a positive number means the continuation phase) "NaN" means missing data in these files. In Experiment 3, bar length was determined as the half of the sequence length because a bar consisted of 4 beats while a tone sequence consists of 8 tones. #### Slope and intercept data Files named "slope_expX.csv" and "intercept_expX.csv" give the slopes and intercepts obtained by the regression analysis of bar length data of each trial, which are used to draw Figures 3, 4, 5 and 8. * 1st column: participant ID * 2nd column: trial number for each participant * 3rd to end columns: estimated slope (or intercept) * 1st row: experimental condition #### Relative Slope data Files named "relativeslope_expX.csv" give the relative slopes to the control condition for each participant (i.e., the difference in slope between a specific condition and the control condition). These data are used to draw Figures 4, 5 and 8. * 1st column: participant ID * 2nd to end columns: relative slope * 1st row: experimental condition #### Summarized tapping strength data Files named "force_ratio_expX.csv" are the average tapping force ratio to the first beat in the continuation phase, which was used to draw Figure 6. * 1st column: participant ID * 2nd column: trial number for each participant * 3rd to end columns: median force ratio to that of the first beat * 1st row: experimental condition and tap position (For example, A_1 means the first tap of condition A). #### Summarized inter-tap-interval (ITI) data Files named "ITI_expX.csv" summarizes the median ratios of inter-tap-intervals (ITIs) to the bar length, which was used to draw Figure 7. * 1st column: participant ID * 2nd column: trial number for each participant * 3rd to end columns: median force ratio to that of the first beat * 1st row: experimental condition and tap position (For example, A_1 means the first tap of condition A).