Auditory perceptual learning depends on temporal regularity and certainty.

Detecting and learning structure in sounds is fundamental to human auditory perception. Evidence for auditory perceptual learning comes from previous studies where listeners were better at detecting repetitions of a short noise snippet embedded in longer, ongoing noise when the same snippet recurred across trials compared with when the snippet was novel in each trial. However, previous work has mainly used (a) temporally regular presentations of the repeating noise snippet and (b) highly predictable intertrial onset timings for the snippet sequences.

Inter-subject Correlation While Listening to Minimalist Music: A Study of Electrophysiological and Behavioral Responses to Steve Reich's .

Musical minimalism utilizes the temporal manipulation of restricted collections of rhythmic, melodic, and/or harmonic materials. One example, Steve Reich's , offers listeners readily audible formal structure with unpredictable events at the local level. For example, pattern recurrences may generate strong expectations which are violated by small temporal and pitch deviations.

Predictability of higher-order temporal structure of musical stimuli is associated with auditory evoked response.

Sound predictability resulting from repetitive patterns can be implicitly learned and often neither requires nor captures our conscious attention. Recently, predictive coding theory has been used as a framework to explain how predictable or expected stimuli evoke and gradually attenuate obligatory neural responses over time compared to those elicited by unpredictable events. However, these results were obtained using the repetition of simple auditory objects such as pairs of tones or phonemes.

Musical Role Asymmetries in Piano Duet Performance Influence Alpha-Band Neural Oscillation and Behavioral Synchronization.

Recent work in interpersonal coordination has revealed that neural oscillations, occurring spontaneously in the human brain, are modulated during the sensory, motor, and cognitive processes involved in interpersonal interactions. In particular, alpha-band (8-12 Hz) activity, linked to attention in general, is related to coordination dynamics and empathy traits. Researchers have also identified an association between each individual's attentiveness to their co-actor and the relative similarity in the co-actors' roles, influencing their behavioral synchronization patterns.

Performance monitoring of self and other in a turn-taking piano duet: A dual-EEG study.

During joint action tasks, expectations for outcomes of one's own and other's actions are collectively monitored. Recent evidence suggests that trait empathy levels may also influence performance monitoring processes. The present study investigated how outcome expectation and empathy interact during a turn-taking piano duet task, using simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) recording.