Distinct roles of expertise and perceptual awareness in sensorimotor adaptation to abrupt tempo changes

This study examined how the direction and magnitude of abrupt tempo changes, as well as dance expertise and perceptual awareness, affect sensorimotor adaptation during rhythmic synchronisation. Thirty-two adults (16 experts and 16 novices) performed synchronisation finger tapping tasks involving both small (± 10 ms; acceleration and deceleration) and large (± 50, ± 100, and ± 150 ms) step changes in metronome tempo, with a baseline inter-tap interval of 500 ms. Perceptual detection of each tempo change was recorded. Adaptation was assessed using inter-tap interval (ITI), relative asynchrony (RA), and phase correction response (PCR) at specific positions following each perturbation. Separate analyses were conducted for tempo acceleration and deceleration conditions. For small accelerations, participants who detected the tempo change adjusted their ITIs closer to the target value, indicating that perceptual awareness supported more effective adaptation. In contrast, for small decelerations, the closest alignment with the target interval was observed in the absence of conscious detection, highlighting the benefit of implicit correction. With larger tempo changes, expertise-related advantages were apparent only for the − 100 ms condition, and were minimal or absent for the − 150 ms and all deceleration conditions. Across all conditions, no significant group differences were found in immediate phase resetting, suggesting that rapid phase correction relies on general sensorimotor mechanisms.