Eyes robustly blink to musical beats like tapping

Abstract

Auditory-motor synchronization with musical rhythm may extend beyond overt body movements like fingers or feet. Through four experiments combining eye-tracking, neurophysiological and structural imaging approaches with 123 young non-musicians, we demonstrated robust synchronization of spontaneous eye blinks with musical beats. The blinking rate consistently aligned with the beat rate across various tempi and independent of melodic cues. Blinking exhibited beat phase-specific tuning, with inhibition immediately before beats and increased frequency afterward. Variations in blink-beat synchronization corresponded to the difference in microstructural lateralization of auditory-parietal connectivity. EEG recordings revealed a dynamic correspondence between blink and neural beat tracking. Mechanistically, this synchronization reflects dynamic auditory attention and temporal modulation of visual sampling. Our findings establish eye tapping as a novel behavioral paradigm, expanding the behavioral repertoire of auditory-motor synchronization. It underscores the intricate relationship between music rhythms and peripheral oculomotor system, proposing a cross-modal active sensing and embodied experience in music perception.