Tommi Himberg

Bio: Tommi Himberg is an academic researcher from Aalto University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Melody & Rhythm. The author has an hindex of 10, co-authored 22 publications receiving 350 citations. Previous affiliations of Tommi Himberg include University of Cambridge & University of Jyväskylä.

Perceived complexity of western and African folk melodies by western and African listeners.

Abstract: Stylistic knowledge and enculturation play a significant role in music perception, although the importance of psychophysical cues in perception of emotions in music has been acknowledged. The psychophysical cues, such as melodic complexity, are assumed to be independent of musical experience. A cross-cultural comparison was used to investigate the ratings of melodic complexity of western and African participants for western (Experiment 1) and African folk songs (Experiment 2). A range of melodic complexity measures was developed to discover what factors contribute to complexity. On the whole, the groups gave similar patterns of responses in both experiments. In Experiment 1, western folk songs represented a style that was familiar for both groups and the results portrayed the differences in stylistic knowledge and high predictive rate of melodic variables. In Experiment 2, African folk songs were stylistically familiar only for the African group and the results illustrated a lower predictive rate of varia...

Coordinated Interpersonal Behaviour in Collective Dance Improvisation: The Aesthetics of Kinaesthetic Togetherness

Abstract: Collective dance improvisation (e.g., traditional and social dancing, contact improvisation) is a participatory, relational and embodied art form which eschews standard concepts in aesthetics. We present our ongoing research into the mechanisms underlying the lived experience of "togetherness" associated with such practices. Togetherness in collective dance improvisation is kinaesthetic (based on movement and its perception), and so can be simultaneously addressed from the perspective of the performers and the spectators, and be measured. We utilise these multiple levels of description: the first-person, phenomenological level of personal experiences, the third-person description of brain and body activity, and the level of interpersonal dynamics. Here, we describe two of our protocols: a four-person mirror game and a 'rhythm battle' dance improvisation score. Using an interpersonal closeness measure after the practice, we correlate subjective sense of individual/group connectedness and observed levels of in-group temporal synchronization. We propose that kinaesthetic togetherness, or interpersonal resonance, is integral to the aesthetic pleasure of the participants and spectators, and that embodied feeling of togetherness might play a role more generally in aesthetic experience in the performing arts.

Learning and Synchronising Dance Movements in South African Songs - Cross-cultural Motion-capture Study

Abstract: Music and dance are human universals. Understanding the communicative nature and the interpersonal dynamics of making music and dancing has a wide area of applications from academic to artistic, educational and therapeutic uses. Cross-cultural and embodied cognitive approaches are important, as they ensure a view across a spectrum of cultural practices and allow us to explore which aspects of cognitive performance are learned and how. In this study, our aims were to use a case study to investigate possible cross-cultural differences in movement, especially corporeal representation of beat and metre; to study group entrainment and factors contributing to synchronisation accuracy. From earlier studies in various fields of behavioural and brain imaging research (perception and attention, music performance, action observation network in the brain etc.) we expected that experts would be more coherent and better entrained, or mutually synchronised to each other, but we were interested in the temporal dynamics of entrainment in a group and the details of these differences. In our study, a choir from South Africa and a group of Finnish choir singers were brought together for a two-day workshop. Songs with choreographed dance movements from various cultures in southern Africa (e.g. Zulu, Sotho and Xhosa) were taught to Finnish participants, and a simple dance choreography was made for a Finnish song that was taught by the Finnish participants. Video, audio and movement data were recorded over a number of performances and practice sessions. Several participants were interviewed informally during the course of the workshop. In this study we analyse two recordings of performances, one of the African and the Finnish song-and-dance.

Co-operative tapping and collective time-keeping - differences of timing accuracy in duet performance with human or computer partner

Abstract: Background Current models of time-keeping and sensorimotor synchronisation only cover situations where a solo performer maintains a steady pulse without an external referent, and when that referent is nonresponsive (does not adapt its phase or period in response to the performer). However, in real- life group music-making, participants have to take each other into account; collective time- keeping in ensembles is a dynamic process based on mutually responsive relations between the performers. In recent experiments by the author, the characteristics of collective time-keeping have been studied using co-operative tapping tasks. Participants of these experiments have reported a qualitative difference between tapping along a metronome and tapping with another person. Aims The aim of the current study was to compare synchronisation in a non-responsive environment (solo or with metronome or computer) with synchronisation in a mutually responsive setting, and try to find quantifiable differences in the tapping performances in these two conditions. Methods Two participants were tapping isochronously or interlocking rhythm patterns, with and without a metronome. The following conditions were compared: solo tapping (1 tapper), duet tapping (2 human tappers), “fake” duet tapping (human tapper with computer-tapper mimicking human tapper). The computer-tapper had a phase irregularity similar to a human tapper, and was either keeping the original tempo or had a constant period error (was speeding up or slowing down). Results (Proper experiments due January - February 2006, these tentative observations based on pilot data) In the pilot experiment, the participants in most trials recognised whether they were tapping with a computer-generated playback or with the other tapper. Coordination between two human tappers was generally better than in the human-computer pairs, especially when the computer was exhibiting a period error in addition to the “normal” phase error. Conclusions These results suggest that with regard to music performance, our current models of time-keeping and synchronisation are incomplete. Collective time-keeping is a dynamic process where the participants are continually adapting the phase and period of their pulse-trains to match with the other performers. Musically relevant timing should be studied in real, interactive settings rather than with isolated individuals and pre-programmed stimuli.

打磨Using Language,倡导新理念

Abstract: 人教版高中英语新课程教材中,语言运用（Using Language）是每个单元必不可少的部分,提供了围绕单元中心话题的听、说、读、写的综合性练习,是单元中心话题的延续和升华.如何设计Using Language部分的教学,使自己的教学模式既不落俗套,又能真正体现新课程标准所倡导的教学理念,正是广大一线英语教师一直努力探索的问题.

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

Abstract: 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.

Why would Musical Training Benefit the Neural Encoding of Speech? The OPERA Hypothesis.

Abstract: Mounting evidence suggests that musical training benefits the neural encoding of speech. This paper offers a hypothesis specifying why such benefits occur. The “OPERA” hypothesis proposes that such benefits are driven by adaptive plasticity in speech-processing networks, and that this plasticity occurs when five conditions are met. These are: 1) Overlap: there is anatomical overlap in the brain networks that process an acoustic feature used in both music and speech (e.g., waveform periodicity, amplitude envelope), 2) Precision: music places higher demands on these shared networks than does speech, in terms of the precision of processing, 3) Emotion: the musical activities that engage this network elicit strong positive emotion, 4) Repetition: the musical activities that engage this network are frequently repeated, and 5) Attention: the musical activities that engage this network are associated with focused attention. According to the OPERA hypothesis, when these conditions are met neural plasticity drives the networks in question to function with higher precision than needed for ordinary speech communication. Yet since speech shares these networks with music, speech processing benefits. The OPERA hypothesis is used to account for the observed superior subcortical encoding of speech in musically trained individuals, and to suggest mechanisms by which musical training might improve linguistic reading abilities.

Being Together in Time: Musical Experience and the Mirror Neuron System

Abstract: THE DISCOVERY OF INDIVIDUAL "MIRROR NEURONS" in the macaque brain that fire both when an action is executed and when that same action is observed or heard, and of a homologous system in humans, is leading to an extraordinary conceptual shift in our understanding of perception-action mechanisms, human communication, and empathy. In a recent model of emotional responses to music (Molnar-Szakacs & Overy, 2006), we proposed that music is perceived not only as an auditory signal, but also as intentional, hierarchically organized sequences of expressive motor acts behind the signal; and that the human mirror neuron system allows for corepresentation and sharing of a musical experience between agent and listener. Here, we expand upon this model of Shared Affective Motion Experience (SAME) and discuss its implications for music therapy and special education.We hypothesize that imitation, synchronization, and shared experience may be key elements of successful work in these areas.