Sensorimotor synchronization with music and metronome in school-aged children

Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS), the coordination of body movements with external stimuli (e.g., dancing, clapping along with music, sport activities), increases throughout childhood when assessed by finger-tapping (FT) tasks following rhythmic auditory cues using metronomes. However, metronomes may support less rhythmic entrainment than naturalistic auditory cues like music, so they may be less effective in showing developmental improvement. This study investigated the effects of age and sex on SMS comparing metronome versus music stimuli in four auditory FT tasks with regular fast (inter-stimulus interval [ISI] = 333 ms) and slow tempi (ISI = 1,000 ms). Participants were 305 typically developing children aged 6 to 11 years. We found improvement (lower variability) in performance with increasing age irrespective of the metronome or music FT and sex, particularly between 6 and 9 years, after which performance stabilized. Nonetheless, mostly irrespective of age, performance for music and metronome stimuli showed differences in synchronization accuracy and variability, indicating that the type of rhythmic stimuli affects performance. A developmental effect was also found in inter-tap variability (but not inter-tap accuracy). Overall, developmental effects were more robust in FT variability (motor implementation) although responses to music and metronome stimuli differed in ways that may be relevant to SMS deficits in clinical populations.