Reliable estimation of internal oscillator properties from a novel, fast-paced tapping paradigm

Rhythmic structure in speech, music, and other auditory signals helps us track, anticipate, and understand the sounds in our environment. The dynamic attending framework proposes that biological systems possess internal rhythms, generated via oscillatory mechanisms, that synchronize with (entrain to) rhythms in the external world. Here, we focused on two properties of internal oscillators: preferred rate, the default rate of an oscillator in the absence of any input, and flexibility, the oscillator’s ability to adapt to changes in external rhythmic context. We aimed to develop methods that can reliably estimate preferred rate and flexibility on an individual basis. The experiment was a synchronization—continuation finger tapping paradigm with a unique design: the stimulus rates were finely sampled over a wide range of rates and were presented only once. Individuals tapped their finger to 5-event isochronous stimulus sequences and continued the rhythm at the same pace. Preferred rate was estimated by assessing the best-performance conditions where the difference between the stimulus rate and continuation tapping rate (tempo-matching error) was minimum. The results revealed harmonically related, multiple preferred rates for each individual. We maximized the differences in stimulus rate between consecutive trials to challenge individuals’ flexibility, which was then estimated by how much tempo-matching errors in synchronization tapping increase with this manipulation. Both measures showed test–retest reliability. The findings demonstrate the influence of properties of the auditory context on rhythmic entrainment, and have implications for development of methods that can improve attentional synchronization and hearing.