Name:Chloe Mondok

School/Affiliation:George Mason University

Co-Authors:Martin Wiener

Virtual or In-person:In-person

Short Bio:

Chloe is a fifth-year PhD student in Psychology (Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience concentration) at George Mason University (GMU). She recently earned her MA in Psychology (Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience concentration) at GMU in 2024 and a BS in Neuroscience with minors in Music and Art History at Moravian University. Her research at GMU focuses on time perception, specifically in regard to elements of music such as rhythm. At GMU, she has utilized methodology such as behavioral, electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). Her current research involves investigating shifts in optimal tapping frequencies across auditory and visual domains.

Abstract:

Proper synchronization mechanisms are necessary for maintaining an understanding of our ever-changing environments. The supplementary motor area (SMA) plays a key role in dynamically processing this information to ensure accuracies in time perception when adapting to these changes. Previous literature has reported differences in synchronization optimization across sensory modalities, namely discrepancies in optimal oscillatory processing dependent on modality type and context. Preferred tapping rates, in which tapping synchronization error is minimal, are used to investigate neural synchronization mechanisms. Numerous studies have demonstrated that preferred tapping rates have higher frequencies for auditory than visual stimuli, though these range across the literature. Here, we replicate and extend work by Kaya and Henry (2022) by investigating preferred tapping rates across both auditory and visual rhythms ranging from .5 to 3 Hz. We used a synchronization-continuation design wherein participants are instructed to tap along to either woodblock tones (auditory metronome) or a circle moving across the vertical plane (visual metronome) on a computer monitor for five beats followed by maintaining that tapping rate in the absence of stimuli for seven beats. The data (n = 30) suggest no difference in preferred tapping rates between auditory and visual modalities, contrary to previous findings. A second experiment exploring possible differences in synchronization mechanisms due to out-of-phase tapping, in which participants tap in-between metronome beats, is currently ongoing. Preliminary data (n = 22) aligns with the findings from the previous experiment though with the presence of a leftward shift in preferred tapping frequencies for syncopated tapping.