Can people tap concurrent bimanual rhythms independently?

If people could tap 2 rhythms independently, 1 rhythm with each hand, train ing people to tap the rhythms separately should enable them to tap the rhyt hms concurrently. However, nonmusician participants in the present experime nts were unable to produce accurate intervals when tapping bimanually after they had mastered the rhythms individually. That finding implies that tapp ing concurrent rhythms requires an integrated sensory-motor representation incorporating the actions of both hands into a single pattern. Although tra ining the rhythms separately cannot specify an integrated code, such specif ication is possible with bimanual training. Bimanual training quickly led t o accurate tapping, but most participants then did not tap correctly either of the separate rhythms that had been mastered in the context of concurren t tapping. That finding suggests that the integrated representation does no t code either rhythm independently.