A previous study reported the unique finding that people tapping a beat pattern with the right hand produce larger negative synchronization error than when tapping with the left hand or other effectors, in contrast to previous studies that have shown that the hands tap patterns simultaneously without any synchronization errors. We examined whether the inter-hand difference in synchronization error occurred due to handedness or to a specificity of the beat pattern employed in that study. Two experiments manipulated the hand–beat assignments. A comparison between the identical beat to the pacing signal and a beat with a longer interval excluded the handedness hypothesis and demonstrated that beat patterns with relatively shorter intervals were tapped earlier (Experiment 1). These synchronization errors were not local but occurred consistently throughout the beat patterns. Experiment 2 excluded alternative explanations. These results indicate that the apparent inconsistency in previous studies was due to the specificity of the beat patterns, suggesting that a beat pattern with a relatively shorter interval between hands is tapped earlier than beats with longer intervals. Our finding that the bimanual tapping of different beat patterns produced different synchronization errors suggests that the notion of a central timing system may need to be revised.

之前的一项研究报告了一个独特的发现，即人们用右手敲击节拍模式比用左手或其他效应器敲击会产生更大的负同步误差，这与之前的研究表明双手同时敲击模式而没有任何同步错误。我们检查了同步错误的手间差异是否是由于手习惯或该研究中使用的节拍模式的特殊性而发生的。两个实验操纵了手拍作业。与起搏信号相同的搏动和具有较长间隔的搏动之间的比较排除了惯用假设，并证明了较早地挖掘了具有相对较短间隔的搏动模式（实验 1）。这些同步错误不是局部的，而是在整个节拍模式中始终如一地发生。实验 2 排除了替代解释。这些结果表明，先前研究中的明显不一致是由于节拍模式的特殊性，这表明双手间隔相对较短的节拍模式比间隔较长的节拍更早被敲击。我们发现，双手敲击不同的节拍模式会产生不同的同步误差，这表明中央计时系统的概念可能需要修改。这表明手之间间隔相对较短的节拍模式比间隔较长的节拍更早被敲击。我们发现，双手敲击不同的节拍模式会产生不同的同步误差，这表明中央计时系统的概念可能需要修改。这表明手之间间隔相对较短的节拍模式比间隔较长的节拍更早被敲击。我们发现，双手敲击不同的节拍模式会产生不同的同步误差，这表明中央计时系统的概念可能需要修改。