In everyday situations, like a rock party or an organ concert, we feel music vibrating through our bodies. How do these vibrotactile signals influence music processing? How do they aid auditory scene analysis? Combining psychophysics, fMRI and time-resolved EEG decoding, this work reveals how the brain encodes the temporal structure of music (beat and envelope) across audition and touch and uses this information to guide multisensory integration and segregation in simple and more complex perceptual scenes. Participants experienced monophonic and polyphonic piano pieces through auditory, vibrotactile and audiotactile stimulation. Vibrotactile signals improved the detection of a brief target embedded in music, establishing the functional relevance of audiotactile integration in naturalistic settings. fMRI and EEG multivariate decoding revealed that auditory and tactile beat information converged in planum temporale and parietal operculum, albeit through distinct neural dynamics and representations. Superior temporal cortices reliably encoded envelope information from audition, but only weakly from touch. Nevertheless, vibrotactile signals significantly enhanced neural encoding of auditory beat as early as 100 ms, and envelope representations from 250 ms onward. These encoding benefits were associated with superadditive interactions in primary auditory cortex, where tactile signals sharpen and amplify auditory envelope representations. In complex polyphonic music, touch further amplified the segregation and encoding of temporally coherent auditory streams. Our findings highlight the important, yet largely unexplored influence of touch on auditory processing, enriching music perception and supporting auditory scene analysis in real-world environments. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, 309349, 101096659

In everyday situations, like a rock party or an organ concert, we feel music vibrating through our bodies. How do these vibrotactile signals influence music processing? How do they aid auditory scene analysis? Combining psychophysics, fMRI and time-resolved EEG decoding, this work reveals how the brain encodes the temporal structure of music (beat and envelope) across audition and touch and uses this information to guide multisensory integration and segregation in simple and more complex perceptual scenes. Participants experienced monophonic and polyphonic piano pieces through auditory, vibrotactile and audiotactile stimulation. Vibrotactile signals improved the detection of a brief target embedded in music, establishing the functional relevance of audiotactile integration in naturalistic settings. fMRI and EEG multivariate decoding revealed that auditory and tactile beat information converged in planum temporale and parietal operculum, albeit through distinct neural dynamics and representations. Superior temporal cortices reliably encoded envelope information from audition, but only weakly from touch. Nevertheless, vibrotactile signals significantly enhanced neural encoding of auditory beat as early as 100 ms, and envelope representations from 250 ms onward. These encoding benefits were associated with superadditive interactions in primary auditory cortex, where tactile signals sharpen and amplify auditory envelope representations. In complex polyphonic music, touch further amplified the segregation and encoding of temporally coherent auditory streams. Our findings highlight the important, yet largely unexplored influence of touch on auditory processing, enriching music perception and supporting auditory scene analysis in real-world environments. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, 309349, 101096659

Druckman et al. document gaps in trust in scientists in the USA. People from groups less represented among scientists (for example, women and those with lower economic status) are less trusting. Incre...

Health sciences

A survey of more than 200 researchers shows strong support for a new community-driven lab handbook that can be implemented by individual group leaders to reduce conflict and create more positive and e...

Vacancy at School of Communication and Culture - Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Dept. of, Aarhus University

By mapping connections among researchers, Neurotree makes it possible to see how the field has evolved and what factors shape its direction.

Perceptual experience depends on recurrent interactions between lower and higher cortices. One theory, predictive coding, posits that feedback from higher to lower brain regions decreases neuronal activity predicted by higher-level representations. Despite the widespread adoption of predictive coding in neuroscience, the correspondence to neurophysiological findings in sensory cortices remains elusive. Here, we review how the canonical patterns of intra- and inter-cortical interactions that occur during perception and shifts of attention deviate from those predicted by predictive coding. We argue that these circuit interactions are better captured by alternative theories, which we summarize under the umbrella term BELIEF. We review how BELIEF theories account for the inter-areal interactions during attentive perception.

Prof Daniël Lakens will share guidance on appropriate circumstances and methods for deviating from a pre-registration

People synchronize their periodic behavioural and physiological rhythms with each other during social interaction. While this interpersonal synchronization has largely been associated with positive ef...

🌱 Formative And Interactive Review (FAIR) 🌱 Reviewer Zero's Formative and Interactive Review (FAIR) draft feedback program is designed for early career researchers (ECRs) to receive feedback on a draf...