Summary: New research reveals how the brain links sensory input and cognitive models when musicians coordinate with each other in live performance.
Source: Max Planck Institute
Performing music together presents a complex challenge for the brain: musicians must not only plan and execute the sounds from their own instrument but also continuously coordinate timing, tempo, and harmony with fellow players.
An international team from the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt am Main (MPIEA) and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig (MPI CBS) examined how the brain achieves this flexible coordination. Their open access study, recently published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, uses fMRI to map the neural networks that underpin shared musical action.
Joint musical performance requires musicians to balance attention between their own motor actions and the sounds produced by others. Because these demands cannot be fully met at the same time, players dynamically shift priorities depending on the musical context. To probe how these shifts are represented in the brain, the researchers recruited 40 classically trained pianists to perform short duet pieces: one musician played a melody with the right hand inside an MRI scanner, while a partner played the bass line on a conventional piano outside the scanner.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging provides detailed spatial localization of brain activity, but the scanner environment normally prevents realistic piano playing. To overcome this, the team used an MRI-compatible piano previously developed in collaboration with the Blüthner Piano Factory in Leipzig. This instrument has 27 keys and registers keystrokes using a light cable, allowing real-time musical interaction while participants remain inside the scanner.
In the experiment, half of the duet pieces were rehearsed by both players so that the inside-scanner pianist knew both parts; for the other half, the inside pianist was unfamiliar with the partner’s bass line. Only the brain activity of the pianist inside the scanner was recorded. The researchers also introduced subtle manipulations of tempo information to create slight timing mismatches between the two performers, simulating natural fluctuations that occur during ensemble playing.
When the clinician inside the scanner had practiced their partner’s bass line in advance, their brain showed increased activity in motor regions associated with playing that part—even though the partner, not the scanner pianist, was physically producing those notes. Auditory regions were simultaneously engaged, indicating that these pianists were not just planning motor actions but also internally simulating how their partner’s part should sound. As first author Natalie Kohler of MPI CBS explains, pianists were effectively predicting and “hearing” the partner’s bass line in their heads, which sometimes differed from what the partner actually played.
Tempo manipulations produced informative neural and behavioral effects. When the partner played at a slightly different tempo than the scanner pianist expected, the cerebellum—known for its sensitivity to timing and temporal prediction—became more active. Team leader Daniela Sammler of MPIEA notes that this cerebellar response occurred in reaction to discrepancies of only a few milliseconds, underscoring the precision required for high-level ensemble performance.
Behaviorally, the size of the mismatch between the internally predicted partner part and the actual sensory feedback influenced how roles were distributed: the larger the discrepancy, the more the scanner pianist turned inward, focusing on their own performance, while the external partner adapted to maintain ensemble cohesion. This pattern aligns with a broader observation in joint action research: performers who find themselves in more challenging or uncertain conditions typically prioritize self-generated actions over monitoring others.
Across the study, stronger activity and functional connectivity were observed in cortico-cerebellar audio-motor networks when pianists had prior motor knowledge of the partner’s part. These results suggest that internal models allow musicians to simulate and anticipate a partner’s auditory output, linking motor plans with expected sounds. Conversely, subtle temporal asynchronies reduced behavioral adaptation and increased cerebellar activation, reflecting a shift toward self-other segregation when sensory input contradicts internal predictions.
Taken together, the findings demonstrate that cortico-cerebellar audio-motor networks play a central role in balancing integration and segregation between self and other during musical joint action. Through these networks, cognitive factors like shared knowledge and sensory factors such as temporal alignment are linked, enabling musicians to adaptively coordinate performance in real time.
About this music and neuroscience research news
Author: Press Office
Source: Max Planck Institute
Contact: Press Office – Max Planck Institute
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access.
“Cortico-cerebellar audio-motor regions coordinate self and other in musical joint action” by Natalie Kohler et al. Cerebral Cortex
Abstract
Cortico-cerebellar audio-motor regions coordinate self and other in musical joint action
Joint music performance requires flexible sensorimotor coordination between self and other. Cognitive and sensory parameters of joint action—such as shared knowledge or temporal (a)synchrony—influence this coordination by shifting the balance between self-other segregation and integration.
To investigate the neural bases of these parameters and their interaction during joint action, pianists played on an MRI-compatible piano while duetting with a partner outside the scanner. The study manipulated motor knowledge of the partner’s part and the temporal compatibility of the partner’s action feedback.
First, the study found increased activity and functional connectivity within cortico-cerebellar audio-motor networks when pianists had practiced their partner’s part, consistent with internal simulation and anticipation of partner-produced auditory feedback. Second, when subtle asynchronies arose between model-based anticipations and the perceived sensory outcome of familiar partner actions, cerebellar activity increased and behavioral adaptation decreased, indicating a shift toward self-other segregation.
These combined findings demonstrate that cortico-cerebellar audio-motor networks bind motor knowledge and other-produced sounds depending on cognitive and sensory aspects of joint performance, playing a crucial role in balancing integration and segregation between self and other.