Dr Tamara Rathke, senior lecturer in linguistics for the department of English Language and Linguistics, has given a talk at Macquarie University on language and rhythm titled ‘When language hits the beat: synchronising movement to simple tonal and verbal stimuli’.

Rhythmic perception-action coupling through sensorimotor synchronization has been studied with non-verbal, simple and complex auditory signals like a metronome and music. Applications of the paradigm to language are relatively rare, but could provide a valuable tool for investigating rhythm perception in speech. The aim of the present study is to compare sensorimotor synchronisation with simple non-verbal and verbal stimuli.

Tamara has also recently received a JSPS fellowship that she had applied for her to spend 2 months at NINJAL (National Institution for Japanese Language and Linguistics).