The effect of music training on unimanual and bimanual responses

Abstract

Music cognition is closely related with some types of nonmusical cognition. Music training improves musical cognitive abilities, and also influences nonmusical abilities, especially motor skills. Through simple tapping tasks using visual stimuli, we explored whether music training had an effect on unimanual and bimanual responses and whether there were differences in bimanual synchrony between different types of musicians (pianists and singers) and non-musicians. The results showed that participants reacted more quickly in the unimanual condition than in the bimanual condition, and participants in the pianist group tapped more quickly than those in the non-musician group. Moreover, participants in musician groups had better bimanual synchrony compared with those in the non-musician groups.