How groove in music affects gait

Absolute and relative intensities of solo, free-form dancing in adults: A pilot study

OBJECTIVES

Engaging in dance of various styles confers health benefits among adults; however, additional studies on free-form dancing are needed to quantify its intensity and advance research on dance and health. This study characterized the absolute and relative physical activity (PA) intensities of solo, free-form dancing at self-determined moderate and vigorous intensities in adults.

METHOD

Participants (N = 48) ages 18 to 83 years old, with 0 to 56 years of dance training experience, engaged in 5-minute free-form dance bouts at respectively self-determined moderate and vigorous intensities, both with and without music. Absolute intensity was measured during bouts using indirect calorimetry (metabolic equivalents; METs = [Formula: see text]O2 ml·kg-1·min-1/3.5). Relative intensity was measured by ratings of perceived exertion (Borg scale) and heart rate. Linear mixed effects models were used to assess the relationship between absolute and relative intensity metrics and model covariates.

RESULTS

On average, the relative intensity of self-determined moderate-to-vigorous intensity dancing, with and without music, was 76% of the age-predicted maximal heart rate; 74% of the heart rate reserve (HRR); and 13 on the Borg scale. By measure of %HRR, all adults reached at least a moderate PA intensity across all dance bouts. The mean absolute intensity of self-determined moderate intensity free-form dancing without music was 5.6 METs, and the presence of music (β = 0.6) and the intention to dance at a vigorous intensity (β = 1.1) were both significantly positively associated with METs, as participants engaged in free-form dance; METs were significantly inversely associated with age (β = -0.05) and BMI (β = -0.10).

CONCLUSIONS

When characterized using HRR, engaging in free-form dance at self-determined moderate-to-vigorous PA intensities provided a sufficient stimulus for all adults to reach a moderate PA intensity, which provides evidence that dancing however one wishes at such perceived intensities may support adults in accumulating the recommended weekly dose of 3150 minutes of moderate intensity PA.

The Ramp protocol: Uncovering individual differences in walking to an auditory beat using TeensyStep

Intentionally walking to the beat of an auditory stimulus seems effortless for most humans. However, studies have revealed significant individual differences in the spontaneous tendency to synchronize. Some individuals tend to adapt their walking pace to the beat, while others show little or no adjustment. To fill this gap we introduce the Ramp protocol, which measures spontaneous adaptation to a change in an auditory rhythmic stimulus in a gait task. First, participants walk at their preferred cadence without stimulation. After several steps, a metronome is presented, timed to match the participant's heel-strike. Then, the metronome tempo progressively departs from the participant's cadence by either accelerating or decelerating. The implementation of the Ramp protocol required real-time detection of heel-strike and auditory stimuli aligned with participants' preferred cadence. To achieve this, we developed the TeensyStep device, which we validated compared to a gold standard for step detection. We also demonstrated the sensitivity of the Ramp protocol to individual differences in the spontaneous response to a tempo-changing rhythmic stimulus by introducing a new measure: the Response Score. This new method and quantification of spontaneous response to rhythmic stimuli holds promise for highlighting and distinguishing different profiles of adaptation in a gait task.

A review of psychological and neuroscientific research on musical groove

When listening to music, we naturally move our bodies rhythmically to the beat, which can be pleasurable and difficult to resist. This pleasurable sensation of wanting to move the body to music has been called "groove." Following pioneering humanities research, psychological and neuroscientific studies have provided insights on associated musical features, behavioral responses, phenomenological aspects, and brain structural and functional correlates of the groove experience. Groove research has advanced the field of music science and more generally informed our understanding of bidirectional links between perception and action, and the role of the motor system in prediction. Activity in motor and reward-related brain networks during music listening is associated with the groove experience, and this neural activity is linked to temporal prediction and learning. This article reviews research on groove as a psychological phenomenon with neurophysiological correlates that link musical rhythm perception, sensorimotor prediction, and reward processing. Promising future research directions range from elucidating specific neural mechanisms to exploring clinical applications and socio-cultural implications of groove.

Is happier music groovier? The influence of emotional characteristics of musical chord progressions on groove

Specific rhythmic patterns in music have been reported to induce an urge to move with feelings of pleasure or enjoyment, called "groove." However, it is unclear how the emotional characteristics of music (e.g., happiness or sadness) affect groove. To address this issue I investigated the effects of the emotional characteristics of music on groove by altering the chord progressions accompanying drum breaks composed by a professional composer while manipulating independent tempo and rhythmic patterns. An online listening experiment was conducted using pieces composed by a professional composer but comprising different types of chord progressions that lead to happiness or sadness. Participants evaluated the nine items on a 7-point scale, including urge to move (i.e., groove), felt emotions, nori, and liking. The experiment found that: (1) chord progressions that evoke happiness were more likely to induce groove, (2) emotional characteristics did not interact with tempi and syncopation in terms of groove ratings, and (3) the accompaniment of drum breaks enhanced groove in both happy and sad chord progressions. Musical pieces with chord progressions that induce happiness were more likely to evoke groove, namely the urge to move. This implies that considering the emotional characteristics of musical pieces and rhythms is crucial when creating music for movement during rehabilitation, therapy, or dance.

Music in the Middle: A Culture-Cognition-Mediator Model of Musical Functionality

Music is both universal, appearing in every known human culture, and culture-specific, often defying intelligibility across cultural boundaries. This duality has been the source of debate within the broad community of music researchers, and there have been significant disagreements both on the ontology of music as an object of study and the appropriate epistemology for that study. To help resolve this tension, I present a culture-cognition-mediator model that situates music as a mediator in the mutually constitutive cycle of cultures and selves representing the ways individuals both shape and are shaped by their cultural environments. This model draws on concepts of musical grammars and schema, contemporary theories in developmental and cultural psychology that blur the distinction between nature and nurture, and recent advances in cognitive neuroscience. Existing evidence of both directions of causality is presented, providing empirical support for the conceptual model. The epistemological consequences of this model are discussed, specifically with respect to transdisciplinarity, hybrid research methods, and several potential empirical applications and testable predictions as well as its import for broader ontological conversations around the evolutionary origins of music itself.

Elements of musical and dance sophistication predict musical groove perception

Listening to groovy music is an enjoyable experience and a common human behavior in some cultures. Specifically, many listeners agree that songs they find to be more familiar and pleasurable are more likely to induce the experience of musical groove. While the pleasurable and dance-inducing effects of musical groove are omnipresent, we know less about how subjective feelings toward music, individual musical or dance experiences, or more objective musical perception abilities are correlated with the way we experience groove. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate how musical and dance sophistication relates to musical groove perception. One-hundred 24 participants completed an online study during which they rated 20 songs, considered high- or low-groove, and completed the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index, the Goldsmiths Dance Sophistication Index, the Beat and Meter Sensitivity Task, and a modified short version of the Profile for Music Perception Skills. Our results reveal that measures of perceptual abilities, musical training, and social dancing predicted the difference in groove rating between high- and low-groove music. Overall, these findings support the notion that listeners' individual experiences and predispositions may shape their perception of musical groove, although other causal directions are also possible. This research helps elucidate the correlates and possible causes of musical groove perception in a wide range of listeners.

Groove rhythm stimulates prefrontal cortex function in groove enjoyers

Hearing a groove rhythm (GR), which creates the sensation of wanting to move to the music, can also create feelings of pleasure and arousal in people, and it may enhance cognitive performance, as does exercise, by stimulating the prefrontal cortex. Here, we examined the hypothesis that GR enhances executive function (EF) by acting on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (l-DLPFC) while also considering individual differences in psychological responses. Fifty-one participants underwent two conditions: 3 min of listening to GR or a white-noise metronome. Before and after listening, participants performed the Stroop task and were monitored for l-DLPFC activity with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Our results show that GR enhanced EF and l-DLPFC activity in participants who felt a greater groove sensation and a more feeling clear-headed after listening to GR. Further, these psychological responses predict the impact of GR on l-DLPFC activity and EF, suggesting that GR enhances EF via l-DLPFC activity when the psychological response to GR is enhanced.

Neural Correlates of Listening to Varying Synchrony Between Beats in Samba Percussion and Relations to Feeling the Groove

Listening to samba percussion often elicits feelings of pleasure and the desire to move with the beat-an experience sometimes referred to as "feeling the groove"- as well as social connectedness. Here we investigated the effects of performance timing in a Brazilian samba percussion ensemble on listeners' experienced pleasantness and the desire to move/dance in a behavioral experiment, as well as on neural processing as assessed via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants listened to different excerpts of samba percussion produced by multiple instruments that either were "in sync", with no additional asynchrony between instrumental parts other than what is usual in naturalistic recordings, or were presented "out of sync" by delaying the snare drums (by 28, 55, or 83 ms). Results of the behavioral experiment showed increasing pleasantness and desire to move/dance with increasing synchrony between instruments. Analysis of hemodynamic responses revealed stronger bilateral brain activity in the supplementary motor area, the left premotor area, and the left middle frontal gyrus with increasing synchrony between instruments. Listening to "in sync" percussion thus strengthens audio-motor interactions by recruiting motor-related brain areas involved in rhythm processing and beat perception to a higher degree. Such motor related activity may form the basis for "feeling the groove" and the associated desire to move to music. Furthermore, in an exploratory analysis we found that participants who reported stronger emotional responses to samba percussion in everyday life showed higher activity in the subgenual cingulate cortex, an area involved in prosocial emotions, social group identification and social bonding.