You got rhythm, or more: The multidimensionality of rhythmic abilities

International audienceHumans have a remarkable capacity for perceiving and producing rhythm. Rhythmiccompetence is often viewed as a single concept, with participants who perform more or lessaccurately on a single rhythm task. However, research is revealing numerous sub-processes andcompetencies involved in rhythm perception and production, which can be selectively impairedor enhanced. To investigate whether different patterns of performance emerge across tasks andindividuals, we measured performance across a range of rhythm tasks from different testbatteries. Distinct performance patterns could potentially reveal separable rhythmiccompetencies that may draw on distinct neural mechanisms. Participants completed nine rhythmperception and production tasks selected from the Battery for the Assessment of AuditorySensorimotor and Timing Abilities (BAASTA), the Beat Alignment Test (BAT), the Beat-BasedAdvantage task (BBA) and two tasks from the Burgundy best Musical Aptitude Test (BbMAT).Principal component analyses revealed clear separation of task performance along three maindimensions: production, beat-based rhythm perception, and sequence memory-based rhythmperception. Hierarchical cluster analyses supported these results, revealing clusters ofparticipants who performed selectively more or less accurately along different dimensions. Thecurrent results support the hypothesis of divergence of rhythmic skills. Based on these results, weprovide guidelines towards a comprehensive testing of rhythm abilities, including at least threeshort tasks measuring: (1) rhythm production (e.g., tapping to metronome/music), (2) beat-basedrhythm perception (e.g., BAT), and (3) sequence memory-based rhythm processing (e.g., BBA).Implications for underlying neural mechanisms, future research, and potential directions forrehabilitation and training programs will be discussed