Pauses are an integral feature of social interaction. Conversation partners often pause between conversational turns, and musical co-performers often pause between musical phrases. How do humans coordinate the duration of pauses to ensure seamless interaction? 40 trained pianists performed a simple melody containing fermatas (notated expressive pauses of unspecified duration) first alone (Solo) and then with a partner (Duet) while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. As predicted, Duet partners’ tone onset synchrony was reduced for tones following pauses. Pauses were shorter in Duet relative to Solo performance, and synchrony of partners’ Duet tone onsets was enhanced for tones following shorter pauses. EEG analysis revealed classic signatures of action preparation during pauses, namely decreases in the power of cortical beta oscillations (13–30 Hz, event-related desynchronization, ERD). Beta ERD did not differ between pauses in Solo and Duet performance, but was enhanced for shorter relative to longer pauses, suggesting that reduced pause durations in Duet performance facilitated a neural state of enhanced action readiness. Together these findings provide novel insight into behavioral strategies by which musical partners resolve coordination challenges posed by expressive silence, and capture a clear neural signature of action planning during time-varying silences in natural music performance.

中文翻译：

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沉默之声：脑电图研究音乐家如何在个人中暂停时间。

暂停是社交互动的一个不可或缺的特征。对话伙伴经常在交谈之间停下来，而音乐演奏者经常在乐句之间停下来。人类如何协调停顿的时间以确保无缝互动？40名受过训练的钢琴家首先演奏了一个简单的旋律，其中包含fermatas（未指定持续时间的表达性停顿），然后与伴侣（Duet）进行伴奏，同时记录了脑电图（EEG）。如预测的那样，在暂停后，二重奏伙伴的音调开始同步减少了。相对于独奏演奏，二重奏的暂停时间更短，并且在较短的暂停后，伴侣的二重奏音调的同步性得到了增强。脑电图分析揭示了停顿期间动作准备的经典特征，即降低皮质β振荡的功率（13–30 Hz，事件相关的失步，ERD）。Beta ERD在独奏和二重奏暂停之间没有区别，但相对于较长的暂停而言，增强了较短的时间，这表明二重奏暂停间隔时间的减少有助于增强动作准备的神经状态。这些发现共同提供了对行为策略的新颖见解，通过这种行为策略，音乐伙伴可以解决表现性沉默带来的协调挑战，并在自然音乐表演中随时间变化的沉默中捕获行动计划的清晰神经信号。这表明减少二重奏表演的停顿时间有助于增强动作准备的神经状态。这些发现共同提供了对行为策略的新颖见解，通过这种行为策略，音乐伴侣可以解决表现性沉默所带来的协调挑战，并在自然音乐表演中随时间变化的沉默中捕获行动计划的清晰神经信号。这表明减少二重奏表演的停顿时间有助于增强动作准备的神经状态。这些发现共同提供了对行为策略的新颖见解，通过这种行为策略，音乐伴侣可以解决表现性沉默所带来的协调挑战，并在自然音乐表演中随时间变化的沉默中捕获行动计划的清晰神经信号。