Syllable Repetition vs. Finger Tapping: Aspects of Motor Timing in 100 Healthy Adults

In this study we systematically compared syllable repetition and finger tapping in healthy adults, and explored possible impacts of tempi, metronome, musical experience, and age on motor timing ability. One hundred healthy adults used finger-tapping and syllable repetition to perform an isochronous pulse in three different tempi, with and without a metronome. Results showed that the motor timing was more accurate with finger tapping than with syllable repetition in the slowest tempo, and the motor timing ability was better with the metronome than without. Persons with musical experience showed better motor timing accuracy than persons without such experience, and the timing asynchrony increased with increasing age. The slowest tempo 90 bpm posed extra challenges to the participants. We speculate that this pattern reflects the fact that the slow tempo lies outside the 3-8 Hz syllable rate of natural speech, which in turn has been linked to theta-based oscillations in the brain.