Spontaneous motor tempo over the course of a week

The role of the time of the day, chronotype, and arousal

Bibliographic Data

ID21533035
AuthorsDavid Hammerschmidt (0000-0002-5786-4040, Universität Hamburg, corresponding author), Chet Wollner (0000-0002-8508-3508, Universität Hamburg)
Year2023
Volume87
Issue1
Pages327-338
Publication date2023-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychological Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0340-0727 • E-ISSN: 1430-2772
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s00426-022-01646-2
PMID35128606
OpenAlexW4210739892
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited54

The spontaneous motor tempo (SMT) or internal tempo describes the natural pace of predictive and emergent movements such as walking or hand clapping. One of the main research interests in the study of the spontaneous motor tempo relates to factors affecting its pace. Previous studies suggest an influence of the circadian rhythm (i.e., 24-h cycle of the biological clock), physiological arousal changes, and potentially also musical experience. This study aimed at investigating these effects in participants‘ everyday life by measuring their SMT four times a day over seven consecutive days, using an experience sampling method. The pace of the SMT was assessed with a finger-tapping paradigm in a self-developed web application. Measured as the inter-tap interval, the overall mean SMT was 650 ms ( SD = 253 ms). Using multi-level modelling (MLM), results show that the pace of the SMT sped up over the course of the day, and that this effect depended on the participants’ chronotype, since participants tending towards morning type were faster in the morning compared to participants tending towards evening type. During the day, the pace of the SMT of morning types stayed relatively constant, whereas it became faster for evening-type participants. Furthermore, higher arousal in participants led to a faster pace of the SMT. Musical sophistication did not influence the SMT. These results indicate that the circadian rhythm influences the internal tempo, since the pace of SMT is not only dependent on the time of the day, but also on the individual entrainment to the 24-h cycle (chronotype)

Arousal · Audiology · Chronotype · Circadian rhythm · Developmental psychology · Engineering · Flow Experience in Various Fields · Medicine · Music Therapy and Health · Neuroscience · Neuroscience and Music Perception · Psychology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access