A review of psychological and neuroscientific research on musical groove

Takahide Etani; Akito Miura; Satoshi Kawase; Shinya Fujii; Peter E Keller; Peter Vuust; Kazutoshi Kudo

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105522

A review of psychological and neuroscientific research on musical groove

Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2024 Mar:158:105522. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105522. Epub 2023 Dec 21.

Authors

Takahide Etani¹, Akito Miura², Satoshi Kawase³, Shinya Fujii⁴, Peter E Keller⁵, Peter Vuust⁶, Kazutoshi Kudo⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, College of Medical, Pharmaceutical, and Health, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan; Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Fujisawa, Japan; Advanced Research Center for Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan. Electronic address: etani7@gmail.com.
² Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan.
³ The Faculty of Psychology, Kobe Gakuin University, Kobe, Japan.
⁴ Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, Fujisawa, Japan.
⁵ Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark/The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark; The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia.
⁶ Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark/The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark.
⁷ Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

PMID: 38141692
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105522

Abstract

When listening to music, we naturally move our bodies rhythmically to the beat, which can be pleasurable and difficult to resist. This pleasurable sensation of wanting to move the body to music has been called "groove." Following pioneering humanities research, psychological and neuroscientific studies have provided insights on associated musical features, behavioral responses, phenomenological aspects, and brain structural and functional correlates of the groove experience. Groove research has advanced the field of music science and more generally informed our understanding of bidirectional links between perception and action, and the role of the motor system in prediction. Activity in motor and reward-related brain networks during music listening is associated with the groove experience, and this neural activity is linked to temporal prediction and learning. This article reviews research on groove as a psychological phenomenon with neurophysiological correlates that link musical rhythm perception, sensorimotor prediction, and reward processing. Promising future research directions range from elucidating specific neural mechanisms to exploring clinical applications and socio-cultural implications of groove.

Keywords: ASAP hypothesis; Beat; Body movement; Dynamic attending theory; Embodied cognition; Groove; Music; Pleasure; Predictive coding; Reward; Rhythm; Sensorimotor interactions.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Auditory Perception / physiology
Brain / physiology
Humans
Music* / psychology
Sensation