Roles of Global Configuration and Local Motion in Beat Synchronization with Biological Motion

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2026.1015

Abstract

Abstract:

Using an adapted beat synchronization paradigm, the present study investigated the effects of global configuration and local motion on beat synchronization with biological motion. Experiment 1 showed that synchronization stability was significantly higher under the standard BM condition than under the scrambled BM condition; furthermore, when global configuration was disrupted, comparing the scrambled BM and inverted-scrambled BM conditions revealed no significant effect of disrupting the biological nature of local motion direction on synchronization stability. Experiment 2, conducted under the premise of disrupted global configuration, compared synchronization stability across three conditions: scrambled BM, inverted-scrambled BM, and constant-velocity-scrambled BM. Disrupting either the biological nature of motion direction or the biological nature of velocity variation produced no significant difference in synchronization stability relative to the condition in which local biological motion was preserved. Experiment 3 revealed an interaction effect: when global configuration was intact, the constant-velocity-unscrambled BM condition yielded significantly lower synchronization stability than the standard BM condition; when global configuration was disrupted, synchronization performance did not differ between the scrambled BM and constant-velocity-scrambled BM conditions. The results support a Bayesian “global prior-local likelihood matching” mechanism: an intact human body configuration activates biological motion templates as a strong prior; when local motion retains its biological nature, the likelihood matches the prior, prediction error is minimized, the sensorimotor timing load is reduced, and synchronization is most stable; when global configuration is disrupted, a strong prior cannot be established, the brain becomes insensitive to the biological nature of local motion, and synchronization performance converges regardless of whether local biological motion is preserved or disrupted. These findings indicate that global configuration dominates prior generation, while local biological motion modulates sensorimotor timing only when a prior is in place, providing new evidence for the hierarchical processing mechanism underlying biological motion perception.

Key words: biological motion, beat synchronization, global configuration, local motion

LU Xiaoman, DU Yike, YE Wenlong, WANG Haifei, MENG Lu, ZHOU Liang. (2026). Roles of Global Configuration and Local Motion in Beat Synchronization with Biological Motion. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 58(6), 1015-1027.

Figures/Tables 5

Figure 1. Stimuli of the three conditions: standard BM, scrambled BM, and inverted-scrambled BM.

Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the experimental stimulus layout.

Figure 3. Beat synchronization stability indices for standard BM, scrambled BM, and inverted-scrambled BM stimuli.
Note. The vertical axis represents the standard deviation of inter-tap intervals (ITI); smaller values indicate higher synchronization stability. Error bars represent standard errors, ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01.

Figure 4. Beat synchronization stability indices for scrambled BM, inverted-scrambled BM, and constant-velocity-scrambled- BM stimuli.
Note: The vertical axis represents the standard deviation of inter-tap intervals (ITI); smaller values indicate higher synchronization stability. Error bars represent standard errors.

Figure 5. The beat synchronization stability index for the standard BM (intact global configuration with local acceleration), constant-velocity-standard BM (intact global configuration with constant local velocity), scrambled BM (disrupted global configuration with local acceleration), and constant-velocity-scrambled BM (disrupted global configuration with constant local velocity) conditions.
Note: The vertical axis represents the standard deviation of inter-tap intervals (ITI); smaller values indicate higher synchronization stability. Error bars represent standard errors, *p < 0.05

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