Monkeys Share the Human Ability to Internally Maintain a Temporal Rhythm

Timing is a fundamental variable for behavior. However, the mechanisms allowing human and non-human primates to synchronize their actions with periodic events are not yet completely understood. Here we characterize the ability of rhesus monkeys and humans to perceive and maintain rhythms of different paces in the absence of sensory cues or motor actions. In our rhythm task subjects had to observe and then internally follow a visual stimulus that periodically changed its location along a circular perimeter. Crucially, they had to maintain this visuospatial tempo in the absence of movements. Our results show that the probability of remaining in synchrony with the rhythm decreased, and the variability in the timing estimates increased, as a function of elapsed time, and these trends were well described by the generalized law of Weber. Additionally, the pattern of errors shows that human subjects tended to lag behind fast rhythms and to get ahead of slow ones, suggesting that a mean tempo might be incorporated as prior information. Overall, our results demonstrate that rhythm perception and maintenance are cognitive abilities that we share with rhesus monkeys, and these abilities do not depend on overt motor commands.