By Interactive Metronome - October 12, 2016

New Research Published:Incorporation of Feedback During Beat Synchronization is an Index of Neural Maturation and Reading Skills

Incorporation of feedback during beat synchronization is an index of neural maturation and reading skills

Speech communication involves integration and coordination of sensory perception and motor production,requiring precise temporal coupling. Beat synchronization, the coordination of movement with a pacing sound, can be used as an index of this sensorimotor timing. We assessed adolescents’ synchronization and capacity to correct asynchronies when given online visual feedback. Variability of synchronization while receiving feedback predicted phonological memory and reading sub-skills, as well as

maturation of cortical auditory processing; less variable synchronization during the presence of feedbacktracked with maturation of cortical processing of sound onsets and resting gamma activity. We suggest the ability to incorporate feedback during synchronization is an index of intentional, multimodal timing based integration in the maturing adolescent brain. Precision of temporal coding across modalities is important for speech processing and literacy skills that rely on dynamic interactions with sound. Synchronization employing feedback may prove useful as a remedial strategy for individuals who struggle with timing-based language learning impairments.

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