1 3 Exp Brain Res DOI 10.1007/s00221-015-4394-6 RESEARCH ARTICLE Is there a link between sensorimotor coordination and inter-manual coordination? Differential effects of auditory and/or visual rhythmic stimulations Mélody Blais 1 · Jean-Michel Albaret 1 · Jessica Tallet 1 Received: 4 February 2015 / Accepted: 22 July 2015 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 suggest that there is dissociation between processes underly- ing sensorimotor synchronization (anticipation or reactivity) and processes underlying inter-manual coordination (motor control). This finding opens new perspectives to evaluate separately the possible sensorimotor and inter-manual coor- dination deficits present in movement disorders. Keywords Tapping · Synchronization · Anticipation · Reaction · Inphase/antiphase patterns · Beat/metronome · Perceptual-motor coupling · Audio-visual integration Introduction In 1958, Fraisse emphasized the tight coupling between motor behavior and rhythmic sensory stimuli in human (Fraisse et al. 1958). Everyday situations such as walking, clapping, dancing or playing music highlight the strong tendency of motor behavior to synchronize with environ- mental rhythms in adults (Fraisse 1948; Fraisse et al. 1958; Repp et al. 2011) and children (Getchell 2006). According to Repp (2005), sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) refers to temporal coordination between rhythmic movement and regular environmental stimuli (i.e., repetitive isochronous pattern of sensory stimuli). In experiments, SMS is investi- gated using unimanual finger tapping tasks, requiring partic- ipants to synchronize finger taps with auditory or/and visual metronomes in a given period of time (see Repp 2005). Syn- chrony/asynchrony can be assessed by computing the mean time delay between each stimulus and its corresponding tap and the variability of the mean delay over time (Chen et al. 2002). Studies on SMS reveal that mean asynchrony is gen- erally negative in adults who are not musicians. Negative SMS suggests that participants tend to tap before the onset of the stimuli (Fraisse 1948; Repp 2005). Abstract The purpose of this study was to test how the sensory modality of rhythmic stimuli affects the production of bimanual coordination patterns. To this aim, participants had to synchronize the taps of their two index fingers with auditory and visual stimuli presented separately (auditory or visual) or simultaneously (audio-visual). This kind of task requires two levels of coordination: (1) sensorimotor coor- dination, which can be measured by the mean asynchrony between the beat of the stimulus and the corresponding tap and by mean asynchrony stability, and (2) inter-manual coor- dination, which can be assessed by the accuracy and stabil- ity of the relative phase between the right-hand and left-hand taps. Previous studies show that sensorimotor coordination is better during the synchronization with auditory or audio- visual metronomes than with visual metronome, but it is not known whether inter-manual coordination is affected by stimulation modalities. To answer this question, 13 partici- pants were required to tap their index fingers in synchrony with the beat of auditory and/or visual stimuli specify- ing three coordination patterns: two preferred inphase and antiphase patterns and a non-preferred intermediate pattern. A first main result demonstrated that inphase tapping had the best inter-manual stability, but the worst asynchrony stabil- ity. The second main finding revealed that for all patterns, audio-visual stimulation improved the stability of sensori- motor coordination but not of inter-manual coordination. The combination of visual and auditory modalities results in multisensory integration, which improves sensorimotor coordination but not inter-manual coordination. Both results * Jessica Tallet jessica.tallet@univ-tlse3.fr 1 Laboratory PRISSMH-LAPMA (EA 4651), University of Paul Sabatier Toulouse 3, 31062 Toulouse, France