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Alpha-band sensory entrainment improves audiovisual temporal acuity

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Abstract

Visual and auditory stimuli are transmitted from the environment to sensory cortices with different timing, requiring the brain to encode when sensory inputs must be segregated or integrated into a single percept. The probability that different audiovisual (AV) stimuli are integrated into a single percept even when presented asynchronously is reflected in the construct of temporal binding window (TBW). There is a strong interest in testing whether it is possible to broaden or shrink TBW by using different neuromodulatory approaches that can speed up or slow down ongoing alpha oscillations, which have been repeatedly hypothesized to be an important determinant of the TBWs size. Here, we employed a web-based sensory entrainment protocol combined with a simultaneity judgment task using simple flash-beep stimuli. The aim was to test whether AV temporal acuity could be modulated trial by trial by synchronizing ongoing neural oscillations in the prestimulus period to a rhythmic sensory stream presented in the upper (∼12 Hz) or lower (∼8.5 Hz) alpha range. As a control, we implemented a nonrhythmic condition where only the first and the last entrainers were employed. Results show that upper alpha entrainment shrinks AV TBW and improves AV temporal acuity when compared with lower alpha and control conditions. Our findings represent a proof of concept of the efficacy of sensory entrainment to improve AV temporal acuity in a trial-by-trial manner, and they strengthen the idea that alpha oscillations may reflect the temporal unit of AV temporal binding.

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The data and materials for this study are available upon request to the authors.

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Acknowledgments and funding information

G.M. and C.B. were supported by Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, PRIN 2017 (2017TBA4KS_003).

The data and materials for this study are available upon request to the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40121, Bologna, Italy

    Gianluca Marsicano & Caterina Bertini

  2. Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Via Rasi e Spinelli 176, 47023, Cesena, Italy

    Gianluca Marsicano & Caterina Bertini

  3. School of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Via Olgettina 58, 20132, Milan, Italy

    Luca Ronconi

  4. Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy

    Luca Ronconi

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  1. Gianluca Marsicano
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Marsicano, G., Bertini, C. & Ronconi, L. Alpha-band sensory entrainment improves audiovisual temporal acuity. Psychon Bull Rev 31, 874–885 (2024). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-023-02388-x

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