Meter as Mechanism: A Neural Network Model that Learns Metrical Patterns

One kind of prosodic structure that apparently underlies both music and some examples of speech production is meter.Yet detailed measurements of the timing of both music and speech show that the nested periodicities that de ne metrical structure can be quite noisy in time.W hat kind of system could produce or perceive such variable metrical timing patter ns?And what would it take to be able to store and reproduce particular metrical patter ns from long-ter m memor y?We have developed a network of coupled oscillators that both produces and perceives patter ns of pulses that confor m to particular meters.In addition, beginning with an initial state with no biases, it can lear n to prefer the particular meter that it has been previously exposed to.