An experimental study on the relationship between individual perceived music tempo and interoception

Abstract

In this study, we examined the relationship between the perception of music tempo and heart rate as well as the relationship between the perception and accuracy of interoception. A standard stimulus (SS) of 86.50 bpm and 11 comparison stimuli (CS) ranging from 0.5x to 1.5x SS in increments of 0.1. Participants evaluated the differences between the SS and CS on a visual scale. Before and after the all evaluations, they reported their heart rate measurements and the number of times they noticed their heart rate as an interoception. The results showed that the differences between the points of subjective equality (PSE) and SS point decreased as the tempo closed the SS. Furthermore, using two-way ANOVA, we found that the more accurate the participant's interoception, the smaller the differences between the PSE and SS point at 0.7x and 0.8x. We discussed the accuracy of interoception is related to perception of tempo.