Data from: Neural mechanisms of rhythm-based temporal prediction: delta phase-locking reflects temporal predictability but not rhythmic entrainment

Predicting the timing of upcoming events enables efficient resource
allocation and action preparation. Rhythmic streams, such as music,
speech, and biological motion, constitute a pervasive source for temporal
predictions. Widely accepted entrainment theories postulate that
rhythm-based predictions are mediated by synchronizing low-frequency
neural oscillations to the rhythm, as indicated by increased phase
concentration (PC) of low-frequency neural activity for rhythmic compared
to random streams. However, we show here that PC enhancement in scalp
recordings is not specific to rhythms but is observed to the same extent
in less periodic streams if they enable memory-based prediction. This is
inconsistent with the predictions of a computational entrainment model of
stronger PC for rhythmic streams. Anticipatory change in alpha activity
and facilitation of electroencephalogram (EEG) manifestations of response
selection are also comparable between rhythm- and memory-based
predictions. However, rhythmic sequences uniquely result in obligatory
depression of preparation-related premotor brain activity when an on-beat
event is omitted, even when it is strategically beneficial to maintain
preparation, leading to larger behavioral costs for violation of
prediction. Thus, while our findings undermine the validity of PC as a
sign of rhythmic entrainment, they constitute the first
electrophysiological dissociation, to our knowledge, between mechanisms of
rhythmic predictions and of memory-based predictions: the former
obligatorily lead to resonance-like preparation patterns (that are in line
with entrainment), while the latter allow flexible resource allocation in
time regardless of periodicity in the input. Taken together, they
delineate the neural mechanisms of three distinct modes of preparation:
continuous vigilance, interval-timing-based prediction and rhythm-based
prediction.