Dr. Anne Keitel - Individual preferred rhythms in brain and behaviour

alk at the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors given by Dr. Anne Keitel (University of Dundee) on April 11, 2024.
Abstract: Each brain area has characteristic patterns of intrinsic neural rhythms that generalise across individuals. However, despite this generalisability, individual variability in brain rhythms exist, and these might account for differences in the perception of auditory stimuli. It has also been suggested that individuals have preferred perceptual and motor rhythms, which could arise from underlying neural rhythms. In a series of studies, we test some of the predictions arising from the account that individuals
have preferred rhythms in brain and behaviour. For example, we investigated whether individual intrinsic brain frequencies predict the preference for musical rhythms. Our results showed that individuals’ theta frequency peak in auditory electrodes predicted their preferred tempo: The faster the theta rhythm, the faster the musical rhythms that individuals liked to hear. In addition, we find limited evidence for the idea that preferred auditory and motor rhythms are connected, in a series of behavioural studies with music and speech. If preferred neural and perceptual/motor rhythms exist, this suggest that tailoring auditory stimuli to the individual might help in training and intervention contexts.