Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The desire to move to music appears to be a human universal. This behavioral response seems to be supported by a tight coupling of auditory and motor networks, even in the absence of overt movement. The prevailing theories explain this phenomenon either in terms of passive brain network entrainment to musical periodicity or motor system involvement in predictive coding. Both explanations recognize the role of rhythmic complexity in modulating motor activity. However, the precise nature of the relationship between rhythmic complexity and motor activity remains unclear. In this work, we conducted an fMRI literature review to examine this relationship. Out of 110 screened articles, 24 met inclusion criteria, reporting findings ranging from non-existent to linear or inverted-U-shaped. Underlying these findings, we encountered significant heterogeneity in the measurement and conceptualization of rhythmic complexity. We provide a summary of the relationships found, the approaches to measuring rhythmic complexity and the different types of tasks and stimuli used. We conclude that, in order to move forward, more agreement is needed regarding measures and notions of complexity.