Oscillatory Hierarchical Reservoirs for Human-like Rhythm Perception and Anticipation

Rhythm is a fundamental aspect of human behaviour, present from infancy and deeply embedded in cultural practices. Rhythm anticipation often occurs before surface event onsets, yet most neuroscience and artificial intelligence studies focus on metronome-based tasks, with less attention to complex musical rhythms. To address this gap, we propose a hierarchical oscillator-based computational model for selected aspects of complex rhythm perception. The model uses coupled neurons that generate oscillations across four layers corresponding to Tatum, Tactus, Motor, and Higher Cognition levels. We evaluate the model using representative rhythm patterns spanning different tempi and perceptual ranges. The model maintains stable entrainment and exhibits selected rhythm-relevant behaviours, including anticipatory movement-timing predictions, timing deviations under tactus-surface conflict, and suppression of movement-timing predictions at anticipated-but-silent tatum-level pulses. In addition, Motor Layer beta-band activity shows rhythm- and tempo-dependent modulation, which we report as a qualitative exploratory comparison with human beta activity.