Entrainment

The Affective Component

The affective component of entrainment in humans is also elicited when one grooves to music—that is, when one experiences the pleasure of moving the body to music and being in time with others. Even passive observers experience covert activation of motor and timing areas of the brain in the absence of overt movement, which may account for why the desire to move along can seem so irresistible. The power of entrainment extends to the formation of interpersonal bonds, which helps explain why people can feel a heightened sense of connectedness in the presence of rhythmic coordinated movement. The temporal and affective components of entrainment in music might be inextricably linked, as it has been suggested that the quality of body synchronization is related to the degree of experienced groove and feelings of affiliation.

The expertise that results from years of training and deliberate practice in music and dance can be seen in refined entrainment abilities. Expert musicians and dancers display, for example, precise but flexible timing and online error correction, the ability to attend to and prioritize multiple partners in an ensemble, the ability to use auditory and motor mental imagery to anticipate upcoming events, and the abilities to shape and evaluate the emotional and aesthetic aspects of the performance. Skills such as these contribute to the impressive repertoire of refined entrainment abilities of expert musicians and dancers, including the performance of highly rehearsed and precise renditions of notated or choreographed music as well as skillful, spontaneous improvisation.

Serving as testament to the fundamental nature of temporal and affective entrainment in music and dance are not only the extensive opportunity to develop refined skills through practice but also the origins of entrainment capacities from early in life. Early musical interactions between infants and their caregivers might provide the first experiences in entrainment and thus provide a foundation for the development of musical skills ranging from timing and synchronization to emotional expressiveness.

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