The contribution of tactile reafference to temporal regularity during bimanual finger tapping

In a repetitive tapping task, the within-hand variability of intertap intervals is reduced when participants tap with both hands, as opposed to single-handed tapping. This bimanual advantage can be attributed to timer variance (according to the Wing-Kristofferson model). Separate timers have been proposed for each hand whose outputs are then averaged (Helmuth & Ivry, 1996, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 22, 278-293). Alternatively, timing might be based on sensory reafference and the bimanual advantage due to the enhancement of sensory reafferences. This alternative hypothesis was tested in three experiments. In the first experiment, we replicated the bimanual advantage in tapping with two fingers of the same hand compared with single finger tapping. In the second experiment, we demonstrated that the bimanual advantage decreased when tactile reafferences from left-hand taps were omitted (by contact-free tapping). In the third experiment, participants tapped bimanually with the index fingers of both hands firmly mechanically coupled. The bimanual advantage was replicated for this condition. Results are consistent with the assumption that the bimanual advantage is due to the sensory reafferences of the second hand. We suggest that our results are best explained by a reformulation of the Wing-Kristofferson model, in which the timer provides action goals in terms of sensory reafferences.