ArticleScientific reports2025
Neural entrainment to the beat and working memory predict sensorimotor synchronization skills.
Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Linking spontaneous speech synchronization and cognitive abilities: evidence from a syllable-timed language.Psychological research · 2026Article
- Chewing modulates theta oscillation and functional connectivity of the frontocentral cortex in attention and working memory.Scientific reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Neural entrainment to rhythmic patterns has been proposed as a mechanism that underlies beat perception and could explain individual differences in sensorimotor synchronization abilities. Nevertheless, the neural and cognitive mechanisms behind beat perception remain an active research area. Our study examined whether neural entrainment to rhythmic patterns, cognitive resources, specifically working memory and musical background predict sensorimotor synchronization skills in adults. Using electroencephalogram (EEG), we recorded steady-state evoked potentials (SS-EPs) while participants passively listened to short tone sequences featuring syncopated (tones missing from certain beats) and unsyncopated (tones present on every beat) rhythms. Participants also completed a finger-tapping task, measuring tapping consistency and asynchrony, and a counting span task to assess working memory. Results showed increased steady-state evoked potentials (SS-EPs) at beat-related frequencies (1.25 Hz and its harmonics, 2.10/2.50 Hz, 5 Hz), indicating faithful neural tracking of the rhythms. Contrary to expectations, stronger neural entrainment to unsyncopated rhythms was associated with greater tapping variability and lower synchronization accuracy. In contrast, working memory capacity positively predicted tapping consistency, suggesting that automatic beat-based predictions as reflected in neural entrainment may reduce the flexibility needed for rhythm production. Musical background was not a significant predictor of tapping performance, while working memory was suggesting that working memory capacity support rhythm production skills by maintaining internal representations of time intervals. Our results challenged the assumption that stronger neural entrainment universally enhances synchronization skills and highlighted the multidimensionality of rhythm processing, and the complex relationship between neural entrainment, cognitive resources, and sensorimotor synchronization skills.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.