Tapping strength variability in sensorimotor experiments on rhythmic tapping

We report psychophysical experiments and time series analyses to investigate sensorimotor tapping strength fluctuations in human periodic tapping with and without a metronome. The power spectral density of tapping strength fluctuations typically decays in an inverse power law (1/fβ-noise) associated with long-range correlations, i.e., with a slow power-law decay of tapping strength autocorrelations and scale-free behavior. The power-law exponents β are scattered around β=1 ranging from 0.67 to 1.8. A log-linear representation of the power spectral densities reveals rhythmic peaks at frequencies f=0.25 (and f=0.5) and a tendency to slightly accentuate every fourth (and second) stroke when subjects try to synchronize their tapping with a metronome.