Tok! is a collaborative acoustic instrument application for iOS devices aimed at real time percussive music making in a colocated setup. It utilizes the mobility of hand-held devices and transforms them into drumsticks to tap on flat surfaces and produce acoustic music. Tok! is also networked and consists of a shared interactive music score to which the players tap their phones, creating a perc...

Listening to music makes us to move in various ways. The characteristics of these movements can be affected by several aspects, such as individual factors, musical features, or the emotional content of the music. In a study in which we presented 60 individuals with 30 musical stimuli representing different genres of popular music and recorded their movement with an optical motion capture system...

This study investigates a task in which discrete and rhythmic movements are combined in a single-joint elbow rotation. Previous studies reported a tendency for the EMG burst associated with the discrete movement to occur around the expected burst associated with the rhythmic movement (e.g., [Exp. Brain Res. 99 (1994) 325; J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 40 (1977) 1129; Hum. Mov. Sci. 19 (2000)...

Groove is often described as a musical quality that can induce movement in a listener. This study examines the effects of listening to groove music on corticospinal excitability. Musicians and non-musicians listened to high-groove music, low-groove music, and spectrally matched noise, while receiving single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the primary motor cortex either on-be...

Sensorimotor synchronization is a fundamental skill involved in the performance of many artistic activities (e.g., music, dance). After a century of research, the manner in which the nervous system produces synchronized movements remains poorly understood. Typical rhythmic movements involve a motion and a motionless phase (dwell). The dwell phase represents a sizable fraction of the rhythm peri...

Humans tend to spontaneously align their movements in response to visual (e.g., swinging pendulum) and auditory rhythms (e.g., hearing music while walking). Particularly in the case of the response to auditory rhythms, neuroscientific research has indicated that motor resources are also recruited while perceiving an auditory rhythm (or regular pulse), suggesting a tight link between the auditor...

Body movements in man are frequently observed in relation to musical rhythms. In this study we have investigated the effect of strongly rhythmic music on corticospinal drive to the ankle extensor and flexor muscles involved in foot tapping. Surface electromyographic (EMG) recordings were made from tibialis anterior (TA) and lateral gastrocnemius (LGN) muscles in 12 normal subjects. Rock music w...

This paper addresses the problem of enumerating all words having a combinatoric property called “rhythmic oddity property”. This enumeration is motivated by the fact that this property is satisfied by many rhythmic patterns used in traditional Central African music.  2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.