Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) is the coordination of rhythmic movement with an external rhythm, ranging from finger tapping in time with a metronome to musical ensemble performance. An earlier review (Repp, 2005) covered tapping studies; two additional reviews (Repp, 2006a, b) focused on music performance and on rate limits of SMS, respectively. The present article supplements and extends these earlier reviews by surveying more recent research in what appears to be a burgeoning field. The article comprises four parts, dealing with (1) conventional tapping studies, (2) other forms of moving in synchrony with external rhythms (including dance and nonhuman animals’ synchronization abilities), (3) interpersonal synchronization (including musical ensemble performance), and (4) the neuroscience of SMS. It is evident that much new knowledge about SMS has been acquired in the last 7 years.

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Sensorimotor synchronization: A review of recent research (2006–2012)

Considerable progress has been made in developing models of cerebellar function in sensorimotor control, as well as in identifying key problems that are the focus of current investigation. In this consensus paper, we discuss the literature on the role of the cerebellar circuitry in motor control, bringing together a range of different viewpoints. The following topics are covered: oculomotor control, classical conditioning (evidence in animals and in humans), cerebellar control of motor speech, control of grip forces, control of voluntary limb movements, timing, sensorimotor synchronization, control of corticomotor excitability, control of movement-related sensory data acquisition, cerebro-cerebellar interaction in visuokinesthetic perception of hand movement, functional neuroimaging studies, and magnetoencephalographic mapping of cortico-cerebellar dynamics. While the field has yet to reach a consensus on the precise role played by the cerebellum in movement control, the literature has witnessed the emergence of broad proposals that address cerebellar function at multiple levels of analysis. This paper highlights the diversity of current opinion, providing a framework for debate and discussion on the role of this quintessential vertebrate structure.

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Consensus paper: roles of the cerebellum in motor control--the diversity of ideas on cerebellar involvement in movement.

In less than three decades, the concept "cerebellar neurocognition" has evolved from a mere afterthought to an entirely new and multifaceted area of neuroscientific research. A close interplay between three main strands of contemporary neuroscience induced a substantial modification of the traditional view of the cerebellum as a mere coordinator of autonomic and somatic motor functions. Indeed, the wealth of current evidence derived from detailed neuroanatomical investigations, functional neuroimaging studies with healthy subjects and patients and in-depth neuropsychological assessment of patients with cerebellar disorders shows that the cerebellum has a cardinal role to play in affective regulation, cognitive processing, and linguistic function. Although considerable progress has been made in models of cerebellar function, controversy remains regarding the exact role of the "linguistic cerebellum" in a broad variety of nonmotor language processes. This consensus paper brings together a range of different viewpoints and opinions regarding the contribution of the cerebellum to language function. Recent developments and insights in the nonmotor modulatory role of the cerebellum in language and some related disorders will be discussed. The role of the cerebellum in speech and language perception, in motor speech planning including apraxia of speech, in verbal working memory, in phonological and semantic verbal fluency, in syntax processing, in the dynamics of language production, in reading and in writing will be addressed. In addition, the functional topography of the linguistic cerebellum and the contribution of the deep nuclei to linguistic function will be briefly discussed. As such, a framework for debate and discussion will be offered in this consensus paper.

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Consensus Paper: Language and the Cerebellum: an Ongoing Enigma

Research on interval timing strongly implicates the cerebellum and the basal ganglia as part of the timing network of the brain. Here we tested the hypothesis that the brain uses differential timing mechanisms and networks—specifically, that the cerebellum subserves the perception of the absolute duration of time intervals, whereas the basal ganglia mediate perception of time intervals relative to a regular beat. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, we asked human subjects to judge the difference in duration of two successive time intervals as a function of the preceding context of an irregular sequence of clicks (where the task relies on encoding the absolute duration of time intervals) or a regular sequence of clicks (where the regular beat provides an extra cue for relative timing). We found significant activations in an olivocerebellar network comprising the inferior olive, vermis, and deep cerebellar nuclei including the dentate nucleus during absolute, duration-based timing and a striato-thalamo-cortical network comprising the putamen, caudate nucleus, thalamus, supplementary motor area, premotor cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during relative, beat-based timing. Our results support two distinct timing mechanisms and underlying subsystems: first, a network comprising the inferior olive and the cerebellum that acts as a precision clock to mediate absolute, duration-based timing, and second, a distinct network for relative, beat-based timing incorporating a striato-thalamo-cortical network.

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Distinct neural substrates of duration-based and beat-based auditory timing.

Various lines of evidence accumulated over the past 30 years indicate that the cerebellum, long recognized as essential for motor control, also has considerable influence on perceptual processes. In this paper, we bring together experts from psychology and neuroscience, with the aim of providing a succinct but comprehensive overview of key findings related to the involvement of the cerebellum in sensory perception. The contributions cover such topics as anatomical and functional connectivity, evolutionary and comparative perspectives, visual and auditory processing, biological motion perception, nociception, self-motion, timing, predictive processing, and perceptual sequencing. While no single explanation has yet emerged concerning the role of the cerebellum in perceptual processes, this consensus paper summarizes the impressive empirical evidence on this problem and highlights diversities as well as commonalities between existing hypotheses. In addition to work with healthy individuals and patients with cerebellar disorders, it is also apparent that several neurological conditions in which perceptual disturbances occur, including autism and schizophrenia, are associated with cerebellar pathology. A better understanding of the involvement of the cerebellum in perceptual processes will thus likely be important for identifying and treating perceptual deficits that may at present go unnoticed and untreated. This paper provides a useful framework for further debate and empirical investigations into the influence of the cerebellum on sensory perception.

/pdf/consensus-paper-the-role-of-the-cerebellum-in-perceptual-k572178iq4.pdf

Consensus Paper: The Role of the Cerebellum in Perceptual Processes

This work tests the hypothesis that the cerebellum is critical to the perception of the timing of sensory events. Auditory tasks were used to assess two types of timing in a group of patients with a stereotyped specific degeneration of the cerebellum: the analysis of single time intervals requiring absolute measurements of time, and the holistic analysis of rhythmic patterns based on relative measures of time using an underlying regular beat. The data support a specific role for the cerebellum only in the absolute timing of single subsecond intervals but not in the relative timing of rhythmic sequences with a regular beat. The findings support the existence of a stopwatch-like cerebellar timing mechanism for absolute intervals that is distinct from mechanisms for entrainment with a regular beat.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/107/25/11597.full.pdf

Dissociation of duration-based and beat-based auditory timing in cerebellar degeneration.

Distinct critical cerebellar subregions for components of verbal working memory.

This work tests the relationship between auditory and phonological skill in a non-selected cohort of 238 school students (age 11) with the specific hypothesis that sound-sequence analysis would be more relevant to phonological skill than the analysis of basic, single sounds. Auditory processing was assessed across the domains of pitch, time and timbre; a combination of six standard tests of literacy and language ability was used to assess phonological skill. A significant correlation between general auditory and phonological skill was demonstrated, plus a significant, specific correlation between measures of phonological skill and the auditory analysis of short sequences in pitch and time. The data support a limited but significant link between auditory and phonological ability with a specific role for sound-sequence analysis, and provide a possible new focus for auditory training strategies to aid language development in early adolescence.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2012.1817

Auditory sequence analysis and phonological skill

This study sought evidence for a specific cerebellar contribution to cognition by characterising the cognitive phenotype of Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 6 (SCA-6); an autosomal dominant genetic disease which causes a highly specific late-onset cerebellar degeneration. A comprehensive neuropsychological assessment was administered to 27 patients with genetically confirmed SCA-6. General intellectual ability, memory and executive function were examined using internationally standardised tests (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III, Wechsler Memory Scale-III, Delis and Kaplan Executive Function System, Brixton Spatial Anticipation test). The patient group showed no evidence of intellectual or memory decline. However, tests of executive function involving skills of cognitive flexibility, inhibition of response and verbal reasoning and abstraction demonstrated significant impairment at the group level with large effect sizes. The results demonstrate an executive deficit due to SCA-6 that can be conceptualised as parallel to the motor difficulties suffered by these patients: the data support a role for the cerebellum in the regulation and coordination of cognitive, as well as motor processes that is relevant to individual performance.

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The Contribution of the Cerebellum to Cognition in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 6

This work tests the hypothesis that language skill depends on the ability to incorporate streams of sound into an accurate temporal framework. We tested the ability of young English-speaking adults to process single time intervals and rhythmic sequences of such intervals, hypothesized to be relevant to the analysis of the temporal structure of language. The data implicate a specific role for the ability to process beat-based temporal regularities in phonological language and literacy skill.

/pdf/auditory-temporal-regularity-processing-correlates-with-2z795ei568.pdf

Freya E. Cooper

Papers

Dissociation of duration-based and beat-based auditory timing in cerebellar degeneration.

Distinct critical cerebellar subregions for components of verbal working memory.

Auditory sequence analysis and phonological skill

The Contribution of the Cerebellum to Cognition in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 6

Auditory temporal-regularity processing correlates with language and literacy skill in early adulthood.