1 3 Exp Brain Res DOI 10.1007/s00221-014-4036-4 RESEARCH ARTICLE Playing beautifully when you have to be fast: spatial and temporal symmetries of movement patterns in skilled piano performance at different tempi Floris T. van Vugt · Shinichi Furuya · Henning Vauth · Hans-Christian Jabusch · Eckart Altenmüller Received: 21 October 2013 / Accepted: 5 July 2014 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 (R 2 = 0.70). The model can be fitted on the data of indi- vidual pianists, providing a novel quantification of expert performance. The present study shows that the motor sys- tem can generate complex movements through a dynamic combination of simple movement templates. This provides insight into how the motor system flexibly adapts to vary- ing contextual constraints. Keywords Generalised motor programmes · Timing · Motor skill · Expert musicians · Scale playing · Movement effectors Introduction Humans are able to learn skills by learning sequences of movements. Sequential motor behaviours such as speech, typing a text, or music performance are ways of conveying information, a crucial aspect of human communication. In order to perform this function, the skills need to be adapt- able to changing contexts. For example, playing a musical sequence at various global and local tempi conveys differ- ent emotional information to listeners (Dalla Bella et al. 2001; Khalfa et al. 2008; Bhatara et al. 2011). Musicians’ capacity to manipulate tempo thus plays a crucial role in expressive performance (Goebl and Palmer 2013). Previous studies focused on variation of the organisation of move- ment kinematics and muscular activity in relation to tempo during piano playing (Furuya et al. 2011b, 2012). However, it is not well understood how temporal features of succes- sive movement elements (i.e. keystrokes) vary across a wide range of tempi. How does the brain implement movements at vari- ous speeds? Movement production over a wide range of tempi has been proposed to be controlled by parametric Abstract Humans are capable of learning a variety of motor skills such as playing the piano. Performance of these skills is subject to multiple constraints, such as musi- cal phrasing or speed requirements, and these constraints vary from one context to another. In order to understand how the brain controls highly skilled movements, we investigated pianists playing musical scales with their left or right hand at various speeds. Pianists showed system- atic temporal deviations away from regularity. At slow tempi, pianists slowed down at the beginning and end of the movement (which we call phrasal template). At fast tempi, temporal deviation traces consisted of three peak delays caused by a thumb-under manoeuvre (which we call neuromuscular template). Intermediate tempi were a linear combination trade-off between these two. We introduce and cross-validate a simple four-parameter model that predicted the timing deviation of each individual note across tempi Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00221-014-4036-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. F. T. van Vugt (*) · S. Furuya · H. Vauth · H.-C. Jabusch · E. Altenmüller Institute of Music Physiology and Musicians’ Medicine, University of Music, Drama, and Media, Emmichplatz 1, 30175 Hanover, Germany e-mail: F.T.vanVugt@gmail.com F. T. van Vugt Lyon Neuroscience Research Center CNRS-UMR 5292, INSERM U1028, University Lyon-1, 50 Avenue Tony Garnier, 69007 Lyon, France H.-C. Jabusch Institute of Musicians’ Medicine, Dresden University of Music Carl Maria von Weber, Leubnitzer Str. 17b, 01069 Dresden, Germany