Authors
Proverbio, A.M., Scognamiglio, P., Valtolina, Zani, M. &., & A.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2025.113303Abstract
Highlights Fast vs. slow audiovisual tapping elicits larger centroparietal ERP responses.
• Delta power increases with slow rhythms, whereas alpha power rises with fast rhythms.
• Alpha-band activity shows selective entrainment over premotor and sensorimotor regions.
• Weighted Entrainment Power Index and Entrainment Intensity Index quantified stimulus–EEG alignment (~0.530 μV2 /Hz
• Results demonstrate frequency-specific neural entrainment, linking temporal stimulus structure to sensorimotor processing. Abstract Neural entrainment—the alignment of endogenous oscillations to the temporal structure of external stimuli—facilitates temporal prediction and enhances sensory processing. We investigated how audiovisual rhythmic stimuli at distinct frequencies modulate EEG dynamics and event-related potentials (ERPs) in 29 healthy adults. Participants observed 110 video-recorded finger-tapping sequences, categorized as low-frequency (~3.49 Hz) or high-frequency (~6.65 Hz), while 128-channel EEG was recorded. ERPs revealed larger late positive potentials for the latter than the former, with centroparietal maxima, and a right-hemisphere dominance for low-frequency rhythms. EEG spectral analyses performed within the 0.5–30 Hz range showed decreased delta power and increased alpha power during fast versus slow stimulation. Morlet wavelet analysis confirmed frequency-specific entrainment, with alpha-band increases over premotor and sensorimotor areas during high-frequency tapping. Neural entrainment analyses revealed a higher Weighted Entrainment Power Index (WEPI) for low- (3.95) compared to high-frequency stimuli (2.80), indicating stronger alignment of EEG power with slower rhythmic inputs. Consistently, the Entrainment Intensity Index (EII = 0.53 μV2/Hz) quantified a robust frequency-dependent modulation of spectral power across delta, theta, and alpha bands. Collectively, these results demonstrate selective neural entrainment to movement-sound coupling, reflected in both ERP amplitudes and EEG oscillatory power, and highlight the role of sensorimotor networks in processing temporal structure of actions. Keywords Neural entrainment EEG Tapping Event-related potentials Rhythmic stimuli Sensorimotor processing Embodiment