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We investigate bifurcations of periodic solutions observed in the forced Wilson-Cowan neuron pair by both the brute-force computation and the shooting method. By superimposing the results given by both methods, a detailed topological classification of periodic solutions is achieved that includes tori and chaos attractors in the parameter space is achieved. We thoroughly explore the parameter space composed of threshold values, amplitude, and angular velocity of an external forcing term. Many bifurcation curves that are invisible when using brute-force method are solved by the shooting method. We find out a typical bifurcation structure including Arnold tongue in the angular velocity and the amplitude of the external force parameter plane, and confirm its fractal structure. In addition, the emergence of periodic bursting responses depending on these patterns is explained.

The effects of different temporal structures among actors in interorganizational projects can be hugely consequential, especially for large societal projects. By applying a temporal translation view to a real-time study of an interorganizational project, we studied the influence of differences between such structures during the collaboration. We found that the three participating organizations, having distinctly different temporal structures, adopted different modes of translation, which we identified as integrative, adaptive and transformative. These different modes of translation affected dramatically how the project unfolded, as they impacted differently the time and effort required to adapt to common schedules and deadlines. Our study contributes a processual extension of entrainment theory by shedding light on entrainment as ongoing accomplishment enabled by a translation view. It also contributes to a processual understanding of the temporality of interorganizational projects.

Neural processing of the speech envelope is of crucial importance for speech perception and comprehension. This envelope processing is often investigated by measuring neural synchronization to sinusoidal amplitude-modulated stimuli at different modulation frequencies. However, it has been argued that these stimuli lack ecological validity. Pulsatile amplitude-modulated stimuli, on the other hand, are suggested to be more ecologically valid and efficient, and have increased potential to uncover the neural mechanisms behind some developmental disorders such a dyslexia. Nonetheless, pulsatile stimuli have not yet been investigated in pre-reading and beginning reading children, which is a crucial age for developmental reading research. We performed a longitudinal study to examine the potential of pulsatile stimuli in this age range. Fifty-two typically reading children were tested at three time points from the middle of their last year of kindergarten (5 years old) to the end of first grade (7 years old). Using electroencephalography, we measured neural synchronization to syllable rate and phoneme rate sinusoidal and pulsatile amplitude-modulated stimuli. Our results revealed that the pulsatile stimuli significantly enhance neural synchronization at syllable rate, compared to the sinusoidal stimuli. Additionally, the pulsatile stimuli at syllable rate elicited a different hemispheric specialization, more closely resembling natural speech envelope tracking. We postulate that using the pulsatile stimuli greatly increases EEG data acquisition efficiency compared to the common sinusoidal amplitude-modulated stimuli in research in younger children and in developmental reading research. ispartof: NEUROIMAGE vol:277 ispartof: location:United States status: accepted

During the sinking process, overflow generates an entrainment phenomenon, accompanied by the occurrence, development, and dissipation of vortices. In this paper, particle image velocimetry (PIV) technology is used to measure the flow fields of overflow sinking, invasion, and mixing. In order to quantitatively analyze the mixing and flow processes during the sinking of the overflow, vorticity, turbulence dissipation, Froude number, local Richardson number, and entrainment coefficient are calculated. In a stratified environment, the overflow entrains the environment fluid of lower density to reach a terminal height where their density equals that of their surroundings and then spread out horizontally. The experimental results show the terminal depth is related to the density of the overflow. The lower the density, the smaller the terminal depth. The turbulent dissipation mainly occurs in the area along the slope and during the process of invading flow to the surrounding. The extreme of the turbulent dissipation is corresponding to the maximum velocity shear and vorticity. At the point where the overflow crosses the sill and at the front end of the overflow, there will be a more obvious phenomenon of entrainment. The entrainment parameter is positively correlated with the density of overflow. These preliminary results would require additional experimental validation and data observation in order to assess their relevance for realistic flow regimes.

Continuous interactions between physiological body-brain rhythms influence how individuals act, perceive, and evaluate their environment. Despite increasing interest, the intricate interface between breathing, cardiac, neural rhythms, and cognitive function remains poorly understood. By evaluating current theoretical and empirical implications, we derive an integrative framework of a 'body-brain dynamic system' that combines a hidden hierarchical structure with dynamical state transitions. We propose that body-brain signals can interchangeably drive state- and task-specific coupling mechanisms which influence cognitive functions. The dynamical nature of this framework parallels the intrinsic variability of human behavior, and ultimately aims at better understanding how individuals act in and adapt to a dynamically changing environment.

Continuous interactions between physiological body-brain rhythms influence how individuals act, perceive, and evaluate their environment. Despite increasing interest, the intricate interface between breathing, cardiac, neural rhythms, and cognitive function remains poorly understood. By evaluating current theoretical and empirical implications, we derive an integrative framework of a 'body-brain dynamic system' that combines a hidden hierarchical structure with dynamical state transitions. We propose that body-brain signals can interchangeably drive state- and task-specific coupling mechanisms which influence cognitive functions. The dynamical nature of this framework parallels the intrinsic variability of human behavior, and ultimately aims at better understanding how individuals act in and adapt to a dynamically changing environment.

The present study is aimed to investigate sub-surface ocean processes and their contribution to the intensification of a tropical cyclone (TC) from a coupled-modeling perspective. The Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere–Wave–Sediment Transport (COAWST) model was employed to simulate TC Phailin, which originated over the Bay of Bengal and made landfall on the eastern coast of India in October 2013. Three sub-surface ocean condition datasets—viz., (a) the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Ocean Reanalysis, (b) the Climate Forecast System Version 2 (CFSV2) Operational Analysis, and (c) the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) Reanalysis datasets—were used for the initial and boundary conditions for the oceanic component of the coupled model in three different simulations of TC Phailin. All the simulations showed a delay in intensification compared to the observation, and ECMWF simulated the most intensified TC. CFSV2 simulated a deeper mixed layer (ML) and higher mixing, which hindered the intensification. Furthermore, higher entrainment of cold water in the ML led to cold water reaching the surface and, consequently, decreased sea surface temperature, which acted as negative feedback in the intensification of the storm in the cases of CFSV2 and HYCOM. ECMWF realistically simulated the interactions of the TC with a cold-core eddy before landfall. A sudden increase in ML heat content, the addition of heat in the ML due to entrainment, and the prevention of cold water reaching the surface were indicative of the breaking of the barrier layer (BL) in ECMWF, which was further corroborated by the spatial distribution of BL thickness in the simulation. This acted as positive feedback in the intensification of the TC. The findings of this study strongly suggest that not only the incorporation of physical oceanic sub-surface processes in the modeling of TCs but also the proper representation of prevailing mesoscale features and ocean sub-surface temperature, salinity, and current profiles in datasets is essential for realistic simulations of TCs.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Kawashima, T., Shibusawa, S., & Amano, K. (2022). Frequency- and phase-dependent effects of auditory entrainment on attentional blink. European Journal of Neuroscience, 56(4), 4411– 4424, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15760. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited., Attentional blink (AB) is the impaired detection of a second target (T2) after a first target has been identified. In this paper, we investigated the functional roles of alpha and theta oscillations on AB by determining how much preceding rhythmic auditory stimulation affected the performance of AB. Healthy young adults participated in the experiment online. We found that when two targets were embedded in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of distractors at 10 Hz (i.e., alpha frequency), the magnitude of AB increased with auditory stimuli. The increase was limited to the case when the frequency and phase of auditory stimuli matched the following RSVP stream. On the contrary, when only two targets were presented without distractors, auditory stimuli at theta, not alpha, increased the AB magnitude. These results indicate that neural oscillations at two different frequencies, namely, alpha and theta, are involved in attentional blink.

The present study shows by a linear hydrodynamic stability analysis that an unstable mixed-layer deep circulation can be generated in the dry convective well-mixed layer by the entrainment from the top. The newly identified instability arises under the two competing processes induced by the top entrainment: the destabilization by generating thermal perturbations and the damping by mechanical mixing. The former and the latter, respectively, dominate over the other in the limits of large and small scales. As a result, the instability is realized at the horizontal scales larger than the order of the mixed-layer depth (ca. 1 km), and the time scale for the growth is about 1 day. This study has been motivated from a question of whether the cloud-top entrainment instability (CTEI) can induce a transition of the stratocumulus-topped well-mixed boundary layer into trade cumulus. The present study intends to extend the previous studies based on the local parcel analyses to a full analysis based on the hydrodynamics. Unfortunately, being based on a dry formulation, the present result does not apply directly to the CTEI problem. Especially, the evaporative cooling is totally neglected. Nevertheless, the present result can still be applied to moist systems, to some extent, by redefining certain terms in the formulation.

Neural entrainment is a phenomenon whereby neural oscillations adjust their frequency to synchronize with the periodic vibration of external stimuli. Research suggests that neural entrainment may help explain the relationship between music education and more optimal cognitive performance later in development. This dissertation tested whether sensory entrainment caused short-term cognitive and motor performance benefits in a young adult sample, and whether entrainment or performance were impacted by stimulus parameters like modality or rhythm or individual differences in attentional ability and music training. Participants (N= 47) were asked to report the extent and type (e.g. instrumental, vocal) of music experience and severity of ADHD symptoms, and then were exposed to repetitive 1.25-Hz or arrhythmic visual or auditory stimuli with interlaced Flanker test items, while EEG was recorded. At some points in the experiment participants were additionally tasked with tapping along to the 1.25-Hz beat through both beat stimuli and gaps. Some entrainment and performance effects were congruent with findings from prior literature, while many other hypotheses regarding entrainment effects were not supported. In terms of individual differences, neither music training nor ADHD symptoms impacted entrainment, but ADHD did impact the effects of entrainment stimuli on Flanker reaction time, with higher ADHD symptoms predicting worse performance during periods of rhythmic stimulation. Lastly and surprisingly, while neither entrainment, music training, nor ADHD symptoms impacted beat-keeping performance in general, ADHD symptoms predicted better beat-keeping during stimulus gap periods. Results in general paint a complicated picture of acute entrainment effects and individual differences. Doctor of Philosophy Neural entrainment is a phenomenon whereby neural oscillations adjust their frequency to synchronize with the periodic vibration of external stimuli. Research suggests that neural entrainment may help explain the relationship between music education and more optimal cognitive performance later in development. This dissertation tested whether sensory entrainment caused short-term cognitive and motor performance benefits in a young adult sample, and whether entrainment or performance were impacted by stimulus parameters like modality or rhythm or individual differences in attentional ability and music training. Participants (N= 47) were asked to report the extent and type (e.g. instrumental, vocal) of music experience and severity of ADHD symptoms, and then were exposed to repetitive 1.25-Hz or arrhythmic visual or auditory stimuli with interlaced Flanker test items, while EEG was recorded. At some points in the experiment participants were additionally tasked with tapping along to the 1.25-Hz beat through both beat stimuli and gaps. Some entrainment and performance effects were congruent with findings from prior literature, while many other hypotheses regarding entrainment effects were not supported. In terms of individual differences, neither music training nor ADHD symptoms impacted entrainment, but ADHD did impact the effects of entrainment stimuli on Flanker reaction time, with higher ADHD symptoms predicting worse performance during periods of rhythmic stimulation. Lastly and surprisingly, while neither entrainment, music training, nor ADHD symptoms impacted beat-keeping performance in general, ADHD symptoms predicted better beat-keeping during stimulus gap periods. Results in general paint a complicated picture of acute entrainment effects and individual differences.

Epilepsy is a neural disease characterized by rhythmic synchronous firing of neurons, also called seizures. These seizures can be modelled as oscillations of voltage input into neighboring neural regions. In this thesis we put forward a leaky integrate-and-fire network model to investigate how seizure-like inputs interact with heterogeneity. We find that heterogeneity supresses oscillatory behaviour of the network, linearizing the system, with large decreases seen in both resonant and higher-order harmonics. While some frequencies do not follow this trend, heterogeneity is shown to decorrelate excitatory-inhibitory networks, promoting asynchronous firing.

Training is known to improve our ability to make decisions when interacting in complex environments. However, individuals vary in their ability to learn new tasks and acquire new skills in different settings. Here, we test whether this variability in learning ability relates to individual brain oscillatory states. We use a visual flicker paradigm to entrain individuals at their own brain rhythm (i.e. peak alpha frequency) as measured by resting-state electroencephalography (EEG). We demonstrate that this individual frequency-matched brain entrainment results in faster learning in a visual identification task (i.e. detecting targets embedded in background clutter) compared to entrainment that does not match an individual's alpha frequency. Further, we show that learning is specific to the phase relationship between the entraining flicker and the visual target stimulus. EEG during entrainment showed that individualized alpha entrainment boosts alpha power, induces phase alignment in the pre-stimulus period, and results in shorter latency of early visual evoked potentials, suggesting that brain entrainment facilitates early visual processing to support improved perceptual decisions. These findings suggest that individualized brain entrainment may boost perceptual learning by altering gain control mechanisms in the visual cortex, indicating a key role for individual neural oscillatory states in learning and brain plasticity.

Previous research established that rhythmic sensory stimulation can affect subsequent stimulus perception, possibly through 'entrainment' of oscillations in the brain. Alpha frequency is a natural target for visual entrainment, because fluctuations in posterior alpha oscillations have been linked to visual target detection or discrimination. On the other hand, alpha oscillations also relate to attentional mechanisms, such as attentional orienting or selection. Previous visual alpha entrainment studies focused on differential processing of targets presented in-phase with the preceding rhythmic stimulation relative to out-of-phase targets (an 'SOA effect'), putatively related to the phase of entrained neuronal alpha oscillations. Fewer studies probed the consequences of rhythmic alpha stimulation for attention mechanisms related to alpha power. Here, we asked whether alpha stimulation of one hemifield has similar effects on reaction times as we see for increased alpha synchronization in magneto/electroencephalography (M/EEG) studies (i.e., more alpha means impaired processing and functional inhibition). We implemented a task inspired by attention studies, assessing reaction times to ipsilateral vs. contralateral visual targets, with and without concurrent presentation of distractors. Yet, in place of any attention cues, we presented a rhythmic, vs. arrhythmic, alpha-frequency train of visual flashes to one hemifield, in a large sample size (N = 115) in an online experiment. We found clear evidence that flash train rhythmicity did not impact task performance. We also found that the spatial congruence between the unilateral flash train and the subsequent visual target did impact response times but only in the presence of contralateral distractor stimuli. We discuss implications, limitations and future directions.

In recent years the study of dynamic, between-brain coupling mechanisms has taken social neuroscience by storm. In particular, interbrain synchrony (IBS) is a putative neural mechanism said to promote social interactions by enabling the functional integration of multiple brains. In this article, I argue that this research is beset with three pervasive and interrelated problems. First, the field lacks a widely accepted definition of IBS. Second, IBS wants for theories that can guide the design and interpretation of experiments. Third, a potpourri of tasks and empirical methods permits undue flexibility when testing the hypothesis. These factors synergistically undermine IBS as a theoretical construct. I finish by recommending measures that can address these issues.

Understanding erosion and entrainment of material by debris flows is essential for predicting and modelling debris-flow volume growth and hazard potential. Recent advances in field, laboratory and modelling studies have distilled two driving forces behind debris-flow erosion: impact and shear forces. How erosion and these forces depend on debris-flow composition and interact remains unclear. Here, we experimentally investigate the effects of debris-flow composition and volume on erosion processes in a small-scale flume with a loosely packed bed. We quantify the effects of gravel, clay and solid fraction in the debris flow on bed erosion. Erosion increased linearly with gravel fraction and volume, and decreased with increasing solid fraction. Erosion was maximal around a volumetric clay fraction of 0.075 (fraction of the total solid volume). Under varying gravel fractions and flow volumes erosion was positively related to both impact and shear forces, while these forces themselves are also correlated. Results further show that internal dynamics driving the debris flows, quantified by Bagnold and Savage numbers, correlate with erosional processes and quantity. Impact forces became increasingly important for bed erosion with increasing grain size. The experiments with varying clay and solid fractions showed that the abundance and viscosity of the interstitial fluid affect debris-flow dynamics, erosional mechanisms and erosion magnitude. High viscosity of the interstitial fluid inhibits the mobility of the debris flow, the movement of the individual grains and the transfer of momentum to the bed by impacts, and therefore inhibits erosion. High solid content possibly decreases the pore pressures in the debris flow and the transport capacity, inhibiting erosion, despite high shear stresses and impact forces. Our results show that bed erosion quantities and mechanisms may vary between debris flows with contrasting composition, and stress that entrainment models and volume-growth predictions may be substantially improved by including compositional effects.

We investigated the impact of hearing loss on the neural processing of speech. Using a forward modelling approach, we compared the neural responses to continuous speech of 14 adults with sensorineural hearing loss with those of age-matched normal-hearing peers. Compared with their normal-hearing peers, hearing-impaired listeners had increased neural tracking and delayed neural responses to continuous speech in quiet. The latency also increased with the degree of hearing loss. As speech understanding decreased, neural tracking decreased in both populations; however, a significantly different trend was observed for the latency of the neural responses. For normal-hearing listeners, the latency increased with increasing background noise level. However, for hearing-impaired listeners, this increase was not observed. Our results support the idea that the neural response latency indicates the efficiency of neural speech processing: More or different brain regions are involved in processing speech, which causes longer communication pathways in the brain. These longer communication pathways hamper the information integration among these brain regions, reflected in longer processing times. Altogether, this suggests decreased neural speech processing efficiency in HI listeners as more time and more or different brain regions are required to process speech. Our results suggest that this reduction in neural speech processing efficiency occurs gradually as hearing deteriorates. From our results, it is apparent that sound amplification does not solve hearing loss. Even when listening to speech in silence at a comfortable loudness, hearing-impaired listeners process speech less efficiently. ispartof: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE vol:55 issue:6 pages:1671-1690 ispartof: location:France status: published

Oscillatory activity in the cerebellum and linked networks is an important aspect of neuronal processing and functional implementation of behavior. So far, it was challenging to quantify and study cerebellar oscillatory signatures in human neuroscience due to the constraints of non-invasive cerebellar electrophysiological recording and interventional techniques. The emerging cerebellar transcranial alternating current stimulation technique (CB-tACS) is a promising tool, which may partially overcome this challenge and provides an exciting non-invasive opportunity to better understand cerebellar physiology. Several studies have successfully demonstrated that CB-tACS can modulate the cerebellar outflow and cerebellum-linked behavior. In the present narrative review, we summarize current studies employing the CB-tACS approach and discuss open research questions. Hereby, we aim to provide an overview on this emerging electrophysiological technique and strive to promote future research in the field. CB-tACS will contribute in the further deciphering of cerebellar oscillatory signatures and its role for motor, cognitive, or affective functions. In long term, CB-tACS could develop into a therapeutic tool for retuning disturbed oscillatory activity in cerebellar networks underlying brain disorders.

Human communication entails subtle non-verbal modes of expression, which can be analyzed quantitatively using computational approaches and thus support human sciences. In this paper we present huSync, a computational framework and system that utilizes trajectory information extracted using pose estimation algorithms from video sequences to quantify synchronization between individuals in small groups. The system is exploited to study interpersonal coordination in musical ensembles. Musicians communicate with each other through sounds and gestures, providing nonverbal cues that regulate interpersonal coordination. huSync was applied to recordings of concert performances by a professional instrumental ensemble playing two musical pieces. We examined effects of different aspects of musical structure (texture and phrase position) on interpersonal synchronization, which was quantified by computing phase locking values of head motion for all possible within-group pairs. Results indicate that interpersonal coupling was stronger for polyphonic textures (ambiguous leadership) than homophonic textures (clear melodic leader), and this difference was greater in early portions of phrases than endings (where coordination demands are highest). Results were cross-validated against an analysis of audio features, showing links between phase locking values and event density. This research produced a system, huSync, that can quantify synchronization in small groups and is sensitive to dynamic modulations of interpersonal coupling related to ambiguity in leadership and coordination demands, in standard video recordings of naturalistic human group interaction. huSync enabled a better understanding of the relationship between interpersonal coupling and musical structure, thus enhancing collaborations between human and computer scientists.

BackgroundVisual phenomena like brightness illusions impressively demonstrate the highly constructive nature of perception. In addition to physical illumination, the subjective experience of brightness is related to temporal neural dynamics in visual cortex.ObjectiveHere, we asked whether biasing the temporal pattern of neural excitability in visual cortex by transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) modulates brightness perception of concurrent rhythmic visual stimuli.MethodsParticipants performed a brightness discrimination task of two flickering lights, one of which was targeted by same-frequency electrical stimulation at varying phase shifts. tACS was applied with an occipital and a periorbital active control montage, based on simulations of electrical currents using finite-element head models.ResultsExperimental results reveal that flicker brightness perception is modulated dependent on the phase shift between sensory and electrical stimulation, solely under occipital tACS. Phase-specific modulatory effects by tACS were dependent on flicker-evoked neural phase stability at the tACS-targeted frequency, recorded prior to electrical stimulation. The optimal timing of tACS application leading to enhanced brightness perception was further correlated with the neural phase delay of the cortical flicker response.ConclusionsOur results corroborate the role of temporally coordinated neural activity in visual cortex for brightness perception of rhythmic visual input in humans. Phase-specific behavioral modulations by tACS emphasize its efficacy to transfer perceptually relevant temporal information to the cortex. These findings provide an important step towards understanding the basis of visual perception and further confirm electrical stimulation as a tool for advancing controlled modulations of neural activity and related behavior.

Body temperature in homeothermic animals does not remain constant but displays a regular circadian fluctuation within a physiological range (e.g., 35°C–38.5°C in mice), constituting a fundamental systemic signal to harmonize circadian clock-regulated physiology. Here, we find the minimal upstream open reading frame (uORF) encoded by the 5′ UTR of the mammalian core clock gene Per2 and reveal its role as a regulatory module for temperature-dependent circadian clock entrainment. A temperature shift within the physiological range does not affect transcription but instead increases translation of Per2 through its minimal uORF. Genetic ablation of the Per2 minimal uORF and inhibition of phosphoinositide-3-kinase, lying upstream of temperature-dependent Per2 protein synthesis, perturb the entrainment of cells to simulated body temperature cycles. At the organismal level, Per2 minimal uORF mutant skin shows delayed wound healing, indicating that uORF-mediated Per2 modulation is crucial for optimal tissue homeostasis. Combined with transcriptional regulation, Per2 minimal uORF-mediated translation may enhance the fitness of circadian physiology., 全身の体内リズムを調和させるRNA配列の発見 --体温の日内変化に合わせてしなやかに調和させる--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-03-07.

Supervisor:浅野 文彦, 先端科学技術研究科, 博士

Gravity currents contribute to the transport of heat and mass in atmospheric and aquatic environments. In aquatic systems subject to daily surface cooling, gravity currents propagate through turbulent convective surroundings. Yet, the effects of thermal convection on aquatic gravity currents remain to be quantified. This paper demonstrates how the interaction between penetrative convection and downslope gravity currents impacts the fluid dynamics and transport across littoral aquatic systems. We performed field experiments in a wind-sheltered lake experiencing differential cooling to resolve the dynamics of thermally driven gravity currents in convective environments. Our in situ observations reveal that convective plumes penetrate gravity currents, generating large vertical fluctuations that foster the erosion of the stratified layer. This enhanced vertical mixing destroys the stratified downslope flow and limits the basin-scale transport. Our results demonstrate that the interaction between penetrative convection and downslope gravity currents controls the littoral-pelagic connectivity in aquatic ecosystems., Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) 175919

People repeat each other words in conversation, for example by using the word "brolly" instead of the word "umbrella" after their interlocutor used "umbrella". In other words, people entrain at a lexical level (Branigan et al., 2011). Lexical entrainment has been described as a consequence of alignment at the level of lexical representations, based on priming (Pickering and Garrod, 2004) but also as an audience design mechanism (e.g. speakers may repeat their interlocutors' words to facilitate their comprehension, in particular when their linguistic competence is assumed not to be optimal) (Brennan and Clark, 1996) or a combination of the two (Branigan et al.,2011). Speakers entrain with their interlocutors regardless of who they are. However, some elements of interlocutors' identity can modulate entrainment: Not only do people repeat their interlocutors' words when they interact with other people, but also when they interact with computer systems (such as virtual agents or social robots) (Branigan et al.,2011; Cirillo et al., 2021). Branigan et al. (2011) showed that the tendency to entrain is modulated by the perceived competence of the interlocutors (i.e. speakers entrain more often with systems that are perceived as less competent), which supports the audience design explanation or the combination between audience design and priming. However, it is still not clear how automatic mechanisms (based on priming) and strategic mechanisms (based on audience design) interact. Ivanova et al. (2020) proposed that attention might have a role: People might pay more attention to interlocutors when they assume they would need more help for comprehension. Attention would increase the depth of processing and encoding of linguistic information which would lead to greater alignment, and entrainment consequentially. In the current experiment, we replicate Branigan et al. (2011)'s experiment, by manipulating participants' beliefs about their interlocutor. One group of participants will play a picture matching/picture naming task with a virtual agent which is presented as highly competent (high competence condition), while another group will play the same task with the same virtual agent, presented, this time, as a beta version (low competence condition). Moreover, half of the participants will be asked to perform a secondary memory task (load condition). Additionally, all participants will be asked to perform a surprise follow-up memory task (word recognition task) that will allow us to investigate whether they attended to interlocutors' linguistic behaviour to a different extent in different conditions and whether attention boosts entrainment.

In this study, we aim to describe dynamic social interaction quantitatively in a naturalistic setting, using Lindy Hop dance. A common measure in joint action research is synchrony, i.e. how temporally aligned events or actions are. A great deal of this research has taken place in tasks based on multi-person music-making or dancing, as they provide a fertile source of highly naturalistic tasks which are sufficiently controllable for cognitive research. However, naturalistic music-making and dancing are rarely completely synchronous. We therefore propose to use new methods from information theory to quantify synergy, i.e. the interaction of two or more systems or agents to produce an effect which is greater than the sum of their separate effects. We will do this using motion capture data of improvised, yet structured, partner dancing. Moreover, we will explore leader-follower dynamics, and the relationship between synchrony, synergy, and a sense of joint agency, in the dance. We will use Lindy Hop, which is an ideal dance style for this study, as the two leading positions (‘open’, and ’closed’) allow for manipulation of closeness of the partners, and information flow between them.

Interpersonal synchronization is fundamental for motor coordination during social interactions. Discerning emergent (entrainment) from planned synchronization represents a non-trivial issue in visually bonded individuals acting together, as well as assessing whether inter-individual differences, e.g., in autistic traits, modulate both types of synchronization. In a visuomotor finger-tapping task, two participants replicated a target tempo either synchronizing (‘joint’ condition) or not (‘non-interactive’ condition, ‘non-int’) with each other. One participant was exposed (‘induced’) to tempo aftereffect (a medium tempo seems faster or slower after exposure to slower or faster inducing tempi), but not the other participant (‘not induced’); thus they had different timing perceptions of the same target. We assessed to what degree emergent and/or planned synchronization affected dyads by analyzing inter-tap-intervals, synchronization indexes, and cross-correlation coefficients. Results revealed a ‘tempo aftereffect contagion’: inter-tap-intervals of both induced and not-induced participants showed aftereffect in both the joint and non-int conditions. Moreover, aftereffects did not correlate across conditions suggesting they might be due to (at least in part) different processes, but the propensity for tempo aftereffect contagion correlated with individuals' autistic traits only in the non-int condition. Finally, participants co-adjusted their tapping more in the joint condition than in the non-int one, as confirmed by higher synchronization indexes and the mutual adaptation pattern of cross-correlation coefficients. Altogether, these results show the subtle interplay between emergent and planned interpersonal synchronization mechanisms that act on a millisecond timescale independently from synching or not with the partner.

Soils are an important source of microplastics (MPs) to the atmosphere but the fluxes and mechanisms involved in MPs entrainment are not well understood. In the present study, a series of horizontally aligned sediment traps have been deployed at different heights within 1 m above the ground for a two-month period at various locations in an arid region (Sarakhs, Iran). MPs were isolated from sediments and were quantified and characterised according to size, colour, shape and polymer composition by established techniques. Most MPs were nylon > polypropylene > polystyrene > polyethylene terephthalate. The distributions of sediment mass (range

Atmospheres are experiences of place involving transformations of consumers’ behaviors and emotions. Existing marketing research reveals how atmospheric stimuli, service performances, and ritual place-making enhance place experiences and create value for firms. Yet it remains unclear how shared experiences of atmosphere emerge and intensify among groups of people during collective live events. Accordingly, this article uses sociological interaction ritual theory to conceptualize “social atmospheres”: rapidly changing qualities of place created when a shared focus aligns consumers’ emotions and behavior, resulting in lively expressions of collective effervescence. With data from an ethnography of an English Premier League football stadium, the authors identify a four-stage process of creating atmospheres in interaction ritual chains. This framework goes beyond conventional retail and servicescape design by demonstrating that social atmospheres are mobile and cocreated between firms and consumers before, during, and after a main event. The study also reveals how interaction rituals can be disrupted and offers insight as to how firms can balance key tensions in creating social atmospheres as a means to enhance customer experiences, customer loyalty, and communal place attachments.

As we listen to speech, our brain’s oscillatory activity synchronizes to its prosodic and syllabic fluctuations, thereby facilitating comprehension. Mounting evidence in adult populations attests that efficient cortical tracking of speech within two low frequency bands — delta (0.5–4 Hz) and theta (4–8 Hz) — is crucial for comprehension, as well as shaped by language-specific knowledge. In children, recent findings indicate that the cortical mechanisms for speech tracking tune in close link with phonological abilities. Therefore, cortical tracking of speech in childhood is thought to underpin speech comprehension and facilitate language acquisition through the emergence of phonological abilities. However, the role of language-specific knowledge in tuning the cortical tracking of speech during childhood, when speech is the major input for language learning, remains unknown. In the proposed study, the amount of exposure to a given language will be used as a proxy for language knowledge in prereading children. We will investigate how variations in the amount of exposure to a language modulate the efficiency of the cortical tracking of natural speech in this language. We will capitalize on the study of delta and theta oscillatory of speech in Basque and Spanish in 5-to-6-year-old bilingual children with different amounts of exposure to each of these languages. We expect to shed light on the factors whereby language learning shapes the cortical tracking of speech, by assessing to what extent cortical tracking of speech depends on the amount of exposure to a language as well as on the degree of lexical knowledge about the speech stream.

With the worldwide massification of mobile devices, the use of technology for pedagogical purposes in the context of music learning has proven to be an indispensable tool for ensuring motivation among students. By exploring the implementation of concepts such as gamification and mobile learning in music education, mentioning relevant case studies in this field, this dissertation culminates with the development of an application for Android smartphones entitled ’Practice As You Walk’. As the name implies, this learning tool consists in the reproduction of musical excerpts at the user’s walking pace, being a form of musical practice that stimulates the memorization of music pieces and synchronization ability of the individual. For the development of the application, this work explores innovative methods used for step detection through integrated sensors on mobile devices, such as the accelerometer and the gyroscope, and also presents the fundamentals of the MIDI communication protocol for the digital transmission of events related with musical performance. Two methods for smartphone-based step detection are proposed, with the rulebased method attaining an F1-score of 99% and the machine learning method attaining an F1-score of 95.84%. The development of the application, initially in the Unity platform, consists of integrating classes for MIDI file manipulation and processing with the ability to interpret and reproduce them at the user’s walking pace. Due to some faults identified in the music playback mechanism, migration to the Android Studio IDE took place through a third-party library that integrates the Sonivox EAS synthesizer. This abstraction from the playback mechanism allowed direct incorporation of the core functionalities developed in Unity and focus on the construction of a captivating user interface. Finally, within the pedagogical purpose of the present work, the application was tested by members of a children and youth choir. The questionnaire revealed general satisfaction with the application, allowing collection of opinions and suggestions on potential future improvements. Com a massificação global dos dispositivos móveis, o uso da tecnologia para fins pedagógicos no contexto da aprendizagem musical revelou ser uma ferramenta imprescindível para assegurar a motivação dos estudantes. Explorando a implementação dos conceitos de gamification e mobile learning no ensino da música, referindo casos de estudo relevantes neste campo, esta dissertação culmina com o desenvolvimento de uma aplicação para smartphones Android denominada ’Practice As You Walk’. Conforme indica o nome, esta ferramenta de aprendizagem consiste na reprodução de excertos musicais ao ritmo determinado pelo passo do utilizador, sendo uma forma de prática musical que estimula no indivíduo a memorização de obras musicais e a capacidade de sincronização. Com vista ao desenvolvimento da aplicação, são explorados neste trabalho métodos inovadores utilizados na deteção de passo através de sensores incorporados nos dispositivos móveis, tais como o acelerómetro e o giroscópio, e também apresentados os fundamentos do protocolo de comunicação MIDI para a transmissão digital de eventos relacionados com a interpretação musical. São propostos dois métodos para a deteção de passo com recurso a um smartphone, tendo o método baseado em regras atingido um F1-score de 99% e o método baseado em aprendizagem automática um F1-score de 95.84%. O desenvolvimento da aplicação, inicialmente na plataforma Unity, consiste na integração de classes para a manipulação e processamento de ficheiros MIDI com a capacidade de leitura e reprodução dos mesmos ao ritmo do passo do utilizador. Devido a alguns defeitos identificados no mecanismo de reprodução, segue-se a migração para o ambiente de desenvolvimento Android Studio recorrendo a uma biblioteca que integra o sintetizador Sonivox EAS. Esta abstração do mecanismo de reprodução permite a integração direta das funcionalidades desenvolvidas em Unity e um maior foco na construção de uma interface de utilizador cativante. Por fim, no âmbito pedagógico deste trabalho, a aplicação foi testada por membros de um coro infanto-juvenil. Um questionário revelou satisfação geral com a aplicação e permitiu a recolha de opiniões e sugestões tendo em vista potenciais melhorias. Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e Telecomunicações

Neural entrainment to musical rhythm is thought to underlie the perception and production of music. In aging populations, the strength of neural entrainment to rhythm has been found to be attenuated, particularly during attentive listening to auditory streams. However, previous studies on neural entrainment to rhythm and aging have often employed artificial auditory rhythms or limited pieces of recorded, naturalistic music, failing to account for the diversity of rhythmic structures found in natural music. As part of larger project assessing a novel music-based intervention for healthy aging, we investigated neural entrainment to musical rhythms in the electroencephalogram (EEG) while participants listened to self-selected musical recordings across a sample of younger and older adults. We specifically measured neural entrainment to the level of musical pulse—quantified here as the phase-locking value (PLV)—after normalizing the PLVs to each musical recording’s detected pulse frequency. As predicted, we observed strong neural phase-locking to musical pulse, and to the sub-harmonic and harmonic levels of musical meter. Overall, PLVs were not significantly different between older and younger adults. This preserved neural entrainment to musical pulse and rhythm could support the design of music-based interventions that aim to modulate endogenous brain activity via self-selected music for healthy cognitive aging.

We define forward entrainment as that part of behavioral or neural entrainment that outlasts the entraining stimulus. In this review, we examine conditions under which one may optimally observe forward entrainment. In Part 1, we review and evaluate studies that have observed forward entrainment using a variety of psychophysical methods (detection, discrimination, and reaction times), different target stimuli (tones, noise, and gaps), different entraining sequences (sinusoidal, rectangular, or sawtooth waveforms), a variety of physiological measures (MEG, EEG, ECoG, CSD), in different modalities (auditory and visual), across modalities (audiovisual and auditory-motor), and in different species. In Part 2, we describe those experimental conditions that place constraints on the magnitude of forward entrainment, including an evaluation of the effects of signal uncertainty and attention, temporal envelope complexity, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), rhythmic rate, prior experience, and intersubject variability. In Part 3 we theorize on potential mechanisms and propose that forward entrainment may instantiate a dynamic auditory afterimage that lasts a fraction of a second to minimize prediction error in signal processing.

This project encompasses data captured at MusicLab Copenhagen, a "science concert" organized by RITMO/University of Oslo and The Danish String Quartet on 26 October 2021 in Copenhagen.

This qualitative interview-based study draws on the reported experiences of students and teachers to explore how agency and entrainment resource and constrain each other in joint music-making. The participants were 23 students of Grades 6 and 11 music teachers from different primary schools. The qualitative content analysis of the 11 student pair interviews and 11 one-to-one teacher interviews indicated that experiences of music-related interpersonal entrainment intertwine with different dimensions of agency. In the analysis, four themes were identified as follows: presence, belonging, safety, and continuity. These findings provide insights into the relationship between agency and entrainment in classroom-based joint music-making and provide a novel lens through which to examine the complementary experiences of students and teachers. This study builds bridges between the concepts of agency and entrainment in the context of music education, offering theoretical clarification as to how and why joint music-making can be considered an intersubjective activity that fosters group cohesion and social interaction. The findings further present a view of the constitutive nature of the relationship among agency, entrainment, and intersubjectivity in joint music-making. The findings offer educators concrete grounds for using joint music-making as a platform for an agency. peerReviewed

Generally all creatures on this planet attain a circadian system, which impacts almost all aspects of living by regulating daily rhythmic physical processes and behaviors. In mammals, the central pacemaker, suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), is located in the hypothalamus, right above optic chiasm. Receiving light information from the environment from the retina, SCN synchronizes the circadian rhythms of the entire body in coordination to the sunrise and sunset cycle, to maximize survival. While light entrained circadian clocks regulate daily behavioral patterns of feeding, availability of food is also an important salient environmental cue that is able to alter the circadian machinery. However, less is known about the mechanism of how food alters the biological clock. In this dissertation, using mouse (mus musculus) as model organism, with a focus in the hypothalamus, we investigated the mechanisms of the interplay between biological clock and metabolism. We demonstrated that dopamine signaling in the SCN enables energy-dense food induced alteration of the daily eating pattern and consequential obesity. We also identified a leptin responsive neuron circuit from dorsal medial hypothalamus (DMH) to the SCN that behaves as an integration hub for food to entrain the circadian system.

Turbulent line plumes have been studied for over half a century, yet key questions regarding their behaviour remain unanswered. In this thesis, we use a combination of simplified theoretical modelling, flow visualisations, and experimental measurements to address the following questions. First, what is the entrainment coefficient of a turbulent line plume? Second, how does real two-dimensional filling box behaviour differ from the commonly used Baines & Turner (1969) filling box model? Third, what are the changes to filling box behaviour when the plume source is not centred in the filling box? The entrainment coefficient is a crucial component of simplified models of plume behaviour, and an accurate value is thus necessary for reliable quantitative predictions. However, reported values for the entrainment coefficient vary from 0.1 to 0.2, severely hindering the use of these models. Furthermore, there has not been a comprehensive attempt to assess the reported variation nor has a value within this range been accepted as a consensus. Using a multifaceted approach combining theoretical developments to plume theory, a thorough assessment of the reported values, and new measurements of the entrainment coefficient, we conclude that the entrainment coefficient is 0.111 ± 15%. This range, considerably smaller than the range in reported values, should result in improved confidence in predictions using plume theory and allow more detailed quantitative comparisons between line plumes and related flows. Filling boxes are commonly interpreted with the Baines & Turner model in which a plume fills a confined environment with a series of infinitesimally thin and passive layers. Flow visualisations show that this idealised filling process does not represent the real behaviour in a two-dimensional filling box: the `layers' created by the plume are relatively thick (approximately 20% of the box height) and play an active role in the filling process. Consequently, the Baines \& Turner model significantly underpredicts the time required for buoyant fluid to reach a given height in a box, with considerable implications for fire safety. At late times in the filling process, the Baines & Turner model makes more reasonable predictions, although still neglects important aspects of the flow. Based on the visualisations and experimental measurements, we propose a hybrid filling box model, combining the Baines & Turner model with a well-mixed region, which more accurately captures filling box behaviour. An off-centred line plume source in a filling box offers the intriguing possibility that the plume could act as a fluid barrier, dividing two regions with different flow conditions. We developed simple models to predict the buoyancy difference that the plume could create and maintain, concluding that the plume could create a practically significant buoyancy difference, given an appropriate box geometry and a sufficiently strong plume. We conducted experiments to measure the buoyancy difference created by an off-centred plume, confirming the models and the premise that an off-centred plume can support a buoyancy difference across it.

Incivility at work poses a problem, both for individuals who are the targets of incivility and for organizations. However, relatively little is known about what drives or hinders individuals to engage in incivility, and how they respond to their own uncivil behavior. Adopting a self-regulation perspective, we link theories explaining enacted incivility as self-regulatory failure with research about the self-regulatory benefits of mindfulness. We develop and investigate a conceptual model on the role of trait mindfulness in antecedent- and consequent-based processes of enacted workplace incivility. Data from an experience-sampling study across 5 work days provided support for the majority of our hypotheses. Individuals high in trait mindfulness not only showed generally low levels of enacted incivility, but they also displayed less variability in enacted incivility over time. Specifically, while enacted incivility was entrained to the work week and systematically decreased from Monday to Friday for individuals low in mindfulness, enacted incivility remained stable over the course of the work week for individuals high in mindfulness. Furthermore, employees high in trait mindfulness reacted in a more morally mature manner and experienced guilt when having engaged in uncivil behavior compared to their low mindful counterparts. However, increases in guilt for high mindful individuals did not translate into lower levels of enacted incivility the following work day. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Circadian clocks schedule biological functions at a specific time of the day. Full comprehension of the clock function requires precise understanding of their entrainment to the environment. The phase of entrained clock is plastic, which depends on different factors such as the period of endogenous oscillator, the period of the zeitgeber cycle (T), and the proportion of light and darkness (day length). The circadian clock of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is able to entrain to a wide range of T-cycles and day lengths. Here, we investigated the importance of the neuropeptide Pigment-Dispersing Factor (PDF) for entrainment by systematically studying locomotor activity rhythms of Pdf 0 mutants and wild-type flies under different T-cycles (T22 to T32) and different day lengths (8, 12, and 16 hour [h]). Furthermore, we analysed PERIOD protein oscillations in selected groups of clock neurons in both genotypes under T24 and T32 at a day length of 16 h. As expected, we found that the phase of Drosophila’s evening activity and evening neurons advanced with increasing T in all the day lengths. This advance was much larger in Pdf 0 mutants (~7 h) than in wild-type flies causing (1) pronounced desynchrony between morning and evening neurons and (2) evening activity to move in the morning instead of the evening. Most interestingly, we found that the lights-off transition determines the phase of evening neurons in both genotypes and that PDF appears necessary to delay the evening neurons by ~3 h to their wild-type phase. Thus, in T32, PDF first delays the molecular cycling in the evening neurons, and then, as shown in previous studies, delays their neuronal firing rhythms to produce a total delay of ~7 h necessary for a wild-type evening activity phase. We conclude that PDF is crucial for appropriate phasing of Drosophila activity rhythm.

Over the past decades, a plethora of studies have linked cortical gamma oscillations (∼30-100 Hz) to neuro-computational mechanisms. Their functional relevance, however, is still passionately debated. Here, we asked if endogenous gamma oscillations in the human brain can be entrained by a rhythmic photic drive >50 Hz. A noninvasive modulation of endogenous brain rhythms allows conclusions about their causal involvement in neurocognition. To this end, we systematically investigated oscillatory responses to a rapid sinusoidal flicker in the absence and presence of endogenous gamma oscillations using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in combination with a high-frequency projector. The photic drive produced a robust response over visual cortex to stimulation frequencies of up to 80 Hz. Strong, endogenous gamma oscillations were induced using moving grating stimuli as repeatedly done in previous research. When superimposing the flicker and the gratings, there was no evidence for phase or frequency entrainment of the endogenous gamma oscillations by the photic drive. Unexpectedly, we did not observe an amplification of the flicker response around participants’ individual gamma frequencies; rather, the magnitude of the response decreased monotonically with increasing frequency. Source reconstruction suggests that the flicker response and the gamma oscillations were produced by separate, coexistent generators in visual cortex. The presented findings challenge the notion that cortical gamma oscillations can be entrained by rhythmic visual stimulation. Instead, the mechanism generating endogenous gamma oscillations seems to be resilient to external perturbation.Significance StatementWe aimed to investigate to what extent ongoing, high-frequency oscillations in the gamma band (30-100 Hz) in the human brain can be entrained by a visual flicker. Gamma oscillations have long been suggested to coordinate neuronal firing and enable inter-regional communication. Our results demonstrate that rhythmic visual stimulation cannot hijack the dynamics of ongoing gamma oscillations; rather, the flicker response and the endogenous gamma oscillations coexist in different visual areas. Therefore, while a visual flicker evokes a strong neuronal response even at high frequencies in the gamma-band, it does not entrain endogenous gamma oscillations in visual cortex. This has important implications for interpreting studies investigating the causal and neuroprotective effects of rhythmic sensory stimulation in the gamma band.

In small musical groups, performers can seem to coordinate their movements almost effortlessly in remarkable exhibits of joint action and entrainment. To achieve a common musical goal, co-performers interact and communicate using non-verbal means such as upper-body movements, and particularly head motion. Studying these phenomena in naturalistic contexts can be challenging since most techniques make use of motion capture technologies that can be intrusive and costly. To investigate an alternative method, we analyze video recordings of a professional instrumental ensemble by extracting trajectory information using pose estimation algorithms. We examine Kansei perspectives such as the analysis of non-verbal expression conveyed by bodily movements and gestures, and test for causal relationships and directed influence between performers using the Granger Causality method. We compute weighted probabilities representing the likelihood that each performer Granger Causes co-performers’ movements. Effects of different aspects of musical textures were examined and results indicated stronger directionality for homophonic textures (clear melodic leader) than polyphonic (ambiguous leadership).

Everyday conversation is characterized by a rapid alternation of turns among successive speakers. We investigate vocal reaction times to speech offsets in order to shed light on the limits of reactive behavior in conversational turn-taking. Twenty-three speakers of Dutch produced a prepared response ([ja], ‘yes’) as fast as possible in response to (a) the onset of a pure tone preceded by a variable amount of silence, and (b) the offset of several types of speech-like auditory stimuli varying in duration, prosodic characteristics, and speech rate. Reactions to the offset of stimuli lacking final prosodic cues were significantly longer than reactions to stimulus onsets (283 vs. 215 ms on average), and were rare below 200 ms (3%). Speaking latencies decreased as prosodic cues appeared further away from the stimulus end. Slowing down the speech rate produced an entrainment effect (i.e. slower responses) for stimuli lacking prosodic cues vs. a facilitatory effect (i.e. faster responses) when prosodic cues were present. These findings suggest that smooth turn transitions taking less than 200 ms are unlikely to involve reactions to silence at the end of a turn, but that they can be achieved when turn-final prosodic cues are available.

Research Master Thesis project by Iris van der Wulp at Utrecht University

Frequency tagging has been used to capture auditory entrainment to beat and meter in music. Specifically, Nozaradan, Peretz, Missal and Mouraux (2011) instructed listeners to imagine either a binary or ternary metrical pattern while listening to an isochronous auditory stimulus and recorded cortical responses using electroencephalography (EEG). The amplitude of brain activity was increased at beat-related frequencies in both imagery conditions. This study inspired other labs to use the frequency tagging approach to examine auditory rhythm perception, and in only 6 years, it has been cited over 250 times on Google Scholar. The frequency tagging technique has been used in several published papers since 2011 and it is being used increasingly in research presented at recent research conferences and symposia. However, this seminal study has not been replicated. This registered report will detail the results of multiple independent conceptual replications of Nozaradan et al. (2011), all of which will follow the same vetted protocol.

Influence of a rhythmic context on the foreperiod effect: A behavioral and eye-tracker approach Rafael Román-Caballero, Elisa Martín-Arévalo, and Juan Lupiáñez Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Granada, Spain; and Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain Introduction Attention fluctuates over time. In the long-term, it seems to wax and wane throughout the day concerning the sleep-wake cycle (Oken et al., 2006) and, when exercised in a sustained way, it is usual to observe a decrease in performance (i.e., vigilance decrement; Luna et al., 2018; Thomson et al., 2015). Several theories (Jones, 1976; Large & Jones, 1999; Fiebelkorn & Kastner, 2019) extend this idea and propose that attention acts as an oscillatory system that alternate, following an intrinsic period (1–4 Hz), between moments of enhanced perceptual sensitivity with instants of attentional disengagement. Moreover, fluctuations of attention can be synchronized with rhythmic environmental stimuli through entrainment (Dynamic Attending Theory, DAT; Jones, 1976). In particular, the regularity of the external rhythm is a key factor in the degree of attentional coupling. Periodic sequences of stimuli promote a tight phase coupling and allow the perceiver to anticipate the nature (e.g., modality, quality) and precise timing of a future event (Henry & Herrman, 2014). Therefore, the presence of a rhythmic context can benefit the perceptual discrimination and response preparation for stimuli occurring in phase with the rhythm (Henry & Herrman, 2014). On the other hand, the DAT proposes that the attentional oscillation is self-sustained, that is, the oscillator decays back to its intrinsic period when the external rhythm disappears. However, evidence about the lasting effect of entrainment is still scarce. A recent study (Trapp et al., 2020) suggests that the benefits of a rhythmic background can remain some minutes after it discontinues. One example of the impact of rhythmic contexts on perceptual performance can be found in Chang et al. (2019). They presented deviants tones (higher or lower in pitch) embedded in rhythmic (isochronous) or arrhythmic (non-isochronous) sequences of standard tones (500 Hz). Pitch deviations (500 ± Δ Hz) were near to the higher and lower discrimination thresholds. During the task, participants benefitted from rhythmic contexts and showed faster responses and superior pitch discrimination for target tones than in arrhythmic sequences. Moreover, electroencephalographic (EEG) signals from bilateral auditory cortices (filtered with a dipole source model) were entrained to rhythms. Delta (1–3 Hz) frequency bands showed power peaks at 2 Hz and harmonic frequencies (4 and 6 Hz) exclusively in rhythmic sequences, according to the isochronous presentation of stimuli each 500 ms. Rhythmic regularity also modulated delta phase, beta (15–25 Hz) power, and delta-beta coupling. More importantly, those EEG changes were correlated with changes in behavioral outcomes (i.e., pitch sensitivity and response speed). Rhythm is not the only type of temporal structure that can support attention (Nobre & van Ede, 2018). One of them is the passage of time itself when there is the certainty that the target will appear after an interval (i.e., when the target is presented in all trials). The probability that an event will occur given that it has not yet occurred increases over time and, therefore, the temporal expectation. As a consequence, reaction time (RT) decreases as the foreperiod (i.e., the interval between the cue and the target) becomes longer, which is usually known as the foreperiod effect (Niemi & Näätänen, 1981; Triviño et al., 2010). Previous studies have explored the interaction between rhythmic structures and the foreperiod effect. Martin et al. (2005) found clear effects of foreperiod and rhythm in a task in which the participants had to discriminate the color of circles. In half of the trials, a single white circle preceded the target (serving as a warning cue), leaving a silent interval of 1000, 1500, or 2000 ms. In the other half, that interval was filled with extra white circles forming an isochronous sequence (with an interonset interval, IOI, of 500 ms between each cue, and between the last of them and the target). Although in both conditions RTs decreased as the cue-target intervals became longer, in the rhythmic condition the reduction was more pronounced. The advantage of the isochronous context disappeared when its pace was drastically slowed down, with an IOI of 4000 ms (Martin et al., 2005; Experiment 2). However, one possibility is that the improved performance in the rhythmic condition could be driven by a higher alerting state due to the greater number of cues. In their third experiment, Martin et al. found that both isochronous sequences and complex rhythmic context lead to allocate attention to moments in time in contrast to random sequences. Similarly, Ellis and Jones (2010) observed a foreperiod effect with RTs in an auditory pitch discrimination task when a scrambled context preceded the target. That is, participants were faster responding to targets that appeared 1000 ms after than those that occurred 500 ms after (and even faster than those appearing after only 250 ms). Interestingly, the use of a complex but metrical rhythm (with a beat each 1000 ms) before the target reversed the foreperiod effect. It was interpreted as a consequence of the rhythm reducing the uncertainty in all the temporal moments, as it elicited increases in temporal expectation to 1000 ms and their subdivisions, 500 and 250 ms. Thus, the better precision to estimate short intervals than longer (250 vs. 1000 ms) would explain the increase of RTs over time. Therefore, simple and complex rhythmic contexts seem to influence the foreperiod effect, at least with response speed outcomes. Nevertheless, in the previous studies, the target always appeared in phase with the period of the entrained rhythm and just one period after the cueing sequence (e.g., 500 ms following the offset of the 500-ms isochronous sequence; Martin et al., 2005, Experiment 1). To probe the oscillatory nature of the rhythm entrainment and the extension of its effect over time, one possibility is to include targets out of phase (e.g., 250 or 750 ms in the last example) along with cue-target intervals of several periods (e.g., since 250 to 2250 ms). Another issue with the aforementioned studies is the presence of remarkably low perceptual demands (Ellis & Jones, 2010, Experiment 2; Martin et al., 2005, Experiment 1) or high (75% of accuracy; Ellis & Jones, 2010, Experiment 1). With those designs, a great percentage of participants might respectively have reached a ceiling effect or performed under the discrimination threshold. Thus, it seems relevant to adjust the demands to the perceptual skills of each participant to assess with enough sensitivity the influence of rhythm. Finally, along with behavioral measures, recent research has shown that temporal expectation can be observed through eye-tracker measures. In two visual tasks of sustained attention, Shalev and Nobre (2020) found that the discrimination and processing speed of the participants improved in the rhythmic blocks (isochronous sequence with an IOI of 3500 ms), compared to blocks where stimuli appeared after a variable interval (2500–4500 ms). In addition, rhythmic regularity reduced pupil size across the tasks, suggesting an arousal adjustment to the conditions of high temporal certainty and the achieving of a more efficient energetic state. Interestingly, pupil size also exhibited a foreperiod-like pattern in variable blocks, with transient increases of the pupil as a function of time (i.e., larger pupil size in intervals close to 4500 than 2500 ms). However, the existence of a single cue-target interval did not allow assessing that pupil-dilation index of the foreperiod effect under a rhythmic context. It has been proposed that pupil size changes can be a sensitive measure of temporal expectation as they vary according to the locus coeruleus-noradrenergic response (via parasympathetic and sympathetic pathways: pupil constriction and dilation, respectively; Wang & Munoz, 2015). A reduced uncertainty such as that in rhythmic contexts would promote reduced tonic arousal along with marked short-scale phasic increases contingent on relevant stimuli (Aston-Jones & Cohen, 2005; Shalev & Nobre, 2020). On the other hand, high uncertainty (i.e., arrhythmic contexts) favors a continuous state of high tonic arousal and slight transient increases. In another visual vigilance task, Dankner et al. (2017) found that saccades were inhibited prior to the target onset at predictable compared with less predictable moments, given by the use of fixed (2000 ms) and variable (1000, 1500, 2000, or 2500 ms) IOI, respectively. The prestimulus saccadic inhibition (PSSI) was absent in most participants with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and it was reduced in those (both neurotypical and with ADHD) with poorer sustaining attention scores. Thus, the PSSI-predictability effect is a sensitive measure of temporal expectation that can be related to suppression mechanisms to prevent image motion on the retina. By reducing eye motion for a short interval of time prior to the target, it may prevent transient visual distortions and enhance acuity. Even more, it has been observed an increase in saccade rates 200 ms after the saccadic suppression, which correlated with PSSI: the higher the PSSI, the higher the post-stimulus saccade rate (Dankner et al., 2017). This post-stimulus rate increase was interpreted as a rebound-like effect that could have pervasive consequences if the target appeared in an unpredictable moment, a few hundred milliseconds later. The PSSI effect has not yet been investigated with non-visual paradigms, such as auditory foreperiod tasks, as in the present research project. The present study aims to investigate the modulating effect of rhythms over the foreperiod effect, as well as its extension over time, in behavioral outcomes (RTs and accuracy) and eye-tracker measures (pupil size and PPSI-predictability effect). We will use a pitch discrimination task with a sequence of standard tones before the target onset. In one block, the IOI will be fixed at 500 ms forming a rhythmic context, while in another block the IOI will be randomly varied between 250 and 750 ms (arrhythmic context). To adjust the perceptual demands in each participant, at the same time that we leave a large proportion of correct responses, a 1-up/4-down procedure will be used to estimate the 84.1% correct pitch discrimination threshold (Levitt, 1971). Moreover, we will use variable cue-target intervals up to 2250 ms and targets in phase with the rhythmic sequence (i.e., n 500 ms after the last tone of a 500-ms isochronous sequence) and targets out of phase (i.e., n 500 +/− 250). This manipulation will allow observing whether attention is devoted more to the moments predicted by the entrained rhythm than those out of phase. Hypotheses We expect a classic foreperiod effect will appear in response speed and accuracy. That is, the later the target onset, the faster the response and the better discrimination (higher accuracy) of the participants. Moreover, and crucially for this study, the presence of a rhythmic context before the target will enhance the perceptual sensitivity and the preparation to the critical moment, and will modulate the foreperiod effect. The presentation of several isochronous standard tones will lead to better performance at moments in phase with the entrained rhythm (500, 1000, 1500, and 2000 ms after the last standard tone). Moreover, we predict that although those effects will extend to the later in-phase moments (1000, 1500, and 2000 ms), it is probable that the alignment with the rhythm will decay over time. Regarding eye-tracker measures, we also expect a modulation of the rhythmic context over the foreperiod effect. Specifically, we hypothesize a decrease of the pupil size at the beginning of the sequence of standard tones along with an increase before the target onset, that will be more marked in the rhythmic block. Furthermore, whether the PSSI is a cross-modal effect, it would be possible to find a similar block modulation over the PSSI: a higher saccade rate just before (−100 ms) the appearance of in-phase targets during the variable-IOI block than in the fixed-IOI block. Finally, the impact of the rhythmic context might decay with the pass of time, being greater in the first periods than in the last ones. Method Participants We have selected the three-way interaction [block (2) × period (4) × phase (2); for details, see below] to estimate the sample size in the present experiment. In a previous pilot study with 11 participants, we found an effect size of f2 = 0.12. Using the Superpower R package (Caldwell et al., 2020), we have found that at least 43 participants will be necessary for a small-to-medium effect size of f2 = 0.09 (similar to that observed in the pilot) with an alpha of .05 and a power of .80. Accordingly, we have chosen a sample size of 45 participants due to the possibility of some missing participants as a consequence of technical issues or misunderstandings of the instructions. All the participants will be students from the University of Granada that will receive 15€ for participating. All will have a self-reported normal or corrected-to-normal vision and will be naïve as to the purpose of the experiment. The study will be conducted following the ethical guidelines laid down by the University of Granada (536/CEIH/2018), in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki (last update: Seoul, 2008). Outlier detection will be based on performance (i.e., mean reaction times and accuracy) identified as poor in terms of meeting all the following indices: standard deviation from the mean of the sample (> 2.5), studentized deleted residuals (> 3), and Cook’s Di (> 4/n). Apparatus and Stimuli The stimulus presentation, timing, and data collection will be controlled by a program written using E-Prime 2.0 (Schneider et al., 2002), run on a standard Pentium 4 PC. During the task, a light gray fixation cross will be presented on the center of a 17-inch widescreen monitor with a 1,280 × 1024-pixel resolution and 60 Hz of refresh rate. Auditory stimuli will be sine wave tones created with Audacity. Tones will last 60 ms with 10 ms rise and 10 ms fall times. Standard tones will have 500 Hz of frequency and will be presented at 70 dB. Whereas, comparison higher and lower tones will have 500 ± Δ Hz and 78 dB, where Δ represents the 84.1% correct pitch discrimination threshold estimated with a 1-up/4-down procedure (Levitt, 1971). We will use a video-based eye-tracker (EyeLink 1000 Plus, SR Research, Ontario, Canada) to measure pupil diameter monocularly as well as microsaccades and blinks at 1000 Hz. Procedure The study will be carried out after preregistration, during June of 2021. The experiment will take place in a dimly-light room and using glasses or contact lenses if needed. The session will last approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. Prior to the experimental task, participants will complete a questionnaire (Appendix A) with items about demographic information, the fatigue and vigor scales of the Spanish abbreviated version of the Profile of Mood States questionnaire (Andrade et al., 2013; original version, Grove & Prapavessis, 1992), musical training background, and exclusion criteria: vision or hearing problems, neurological or psychiatric illness, diabetes, drug abuse, or chronic use of psychoactive medication. After that, participants will sit 64 cm from the monitor, and a chin rest will be used to keep their head still. First, the individual pitch discrimination threshold will be estimated using a 1-up/4-down procedure (84.1% correct pitch discrimination, following Levitt, 1971). In each trial, a standard tone will be presented followed by a comparison tone 500 ms after. The participants will be required to judge whether they perceive the second stimulus higher or lower in pitch than the standard (pressing “8” or “2” keys, respectively). The estimation of the discrimination threshold will comprise two blocks, one for the upper threshold and beginning with a 515-Hz tone and a lower threshold block beginning with a tone of 485 Hz of frequency (the order of the blocks will be counterbalanced). We will estimate the discrimination threshold by averaging the frequency of all the peaks and valleys in each type of block. Peaks and valleys are the frequency values at which a change in the perceptual trend occurs (for instance, when the individual perceives that the second tone has a lower pitch after a series of trials in which it was judged as higher). To reach a reliable discrimination threshold in each participant, the 1-up/4-down procedure will finish after the occurrence of ten peaks or valleys in each block. After the estimation of the discrimination threshold, participants will carry out the pitch discrimination task. The instructions will appear on the screen and will be explained to the participant by the experimenter, who will also answer any questions about the procedure. In each trial, the participants will hear five, six, or seven standard tones with an IOI of 500 ms or a random value between 250 and 750 ms, depending on the block (fixed vs. variable block; see Figure A in the OSF project https://osf.io/cw93r/). After the sequence of standard tones, a comparison tone will appear with an IOI randomly selected from 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1250, 1500, 1750, 2000, and 2250 ms. The participants will be required to discriminate as fast and accurately as possible whether the comparison tone has a higher or lower pitch than the standard tones, pressing “z” or “m” (the meaning of what indicates each key will be counterbalanced across participants). The discrimination task will begin with two practice blocks of eight trials each. Feedback for incorrect responses will be provided only during practice blocks. Then, participants will complete one block of 252 trials with fixed IOIs of 500 ms for the sequence of standard tones or with variable IOIs between 250 and 750 ms (the order will be counterbalanced across participants). As there are nine possible IOIs between the last standard tone and the target, and two pitches, there will be 14 trials for each type (with the same IOI and the same pitch). Subsequently, participants will be asked about the difficulty of the last task block (Appendix B). After 1 or 2 minutes of rest, they will carry out a second task block, with variable IOIs if the first block was with fixed IOIs or with fixed if the previous were variable. Finally, the participants will complete the question about the difficulty. The experimental task will compromise 28 trials for each experimental condition. Design and Statistical Analyses The experiment has a (2 × 4 × 2) three-factor repeated-measures design: block (fixed vs. variable), period (500–750/1000–1250/1500–1750/2000–2250 ms), and phase (in-phase: 500, 1000, 1500, and 2000 ms; vs. out-of-phase target: 750, 1250, 1750, and 2250 ms). For behavioral measures, we will conduct repeated-measures ANOVAs with mean RTs and accuracy as dependent variables. Moreover, paired t-tests will be used for comparison between conditions. We expect a higher number of misses in the cue-target interval of 250 ms, and, subsequently, a reduced proportion of trials to be analyzed. Regarding eye-tracker measures, blink intervals will be identified following Hershman et al.’s procedure (2018) and will be removed from the analyses. For analyses with trial time series, raw pupil size will be converted to z scores, by calculating the mean and standard deviation of each separate block for each participant. Then, the time series before the target onset of both blocks will be compared with permutation t-tests based on 10,000 samples. In addition, the slopes of the increase in the pupil size during foreperiod will be analyzed with a regression model, including block (fixed vs. variable) as a categorical factor. For saccade analyses, gaze-position data will be segmented into epochs from –500 to 500 ms relative to the target onset. For saccades detection, we will use a similar procedure to Dankner et al. (2017): saccades are identified by eye moments that exceed a threshold of 4 standard deviations from the median velocity during 7 ms (seven consecutive eye-position samples). The dependent variable will be the saccade rate at –100 to 0 ms relative to the onset of targets for PSSI and the saccade rate at 0 to 500 ms for the post-stimulus effect. We will exclude every trial in which a blink interval overlaps with that interval or in which a saccade larger than 3° occurs at that interval. Permutation t-tests for each time point based on 10,000 samples will be used. In addition, we will use two repeated-measures ANOVAs with block (fixed vs. variable) and phase (in phase vs. out of phase) as factors: one with the mean saccade rates at the pre-stimulus interval (–100 to 0 ms) as dependent variable, and another with the mean saccade rates at the post-stimulus interval 200 to 500 ms). References Andrade, E., Arce, C., De Francisco, C., Torrado, J., & Garrido, J. (2013). Abbreviated version in Spanish of the POMS questionnaire for adult athletes and general population. Revista de Psicología del Deporte, 22(1), 95–102. Aston-Jones, G., & Cohen, J. D. (2005). An integrative theory of locus coeruleus- norepinephrine function: Adaptive gain and optimal performance. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 28(1), 403–450. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.28.061604.135709 Caldwell, A., Lakens, D., DeBruine, L., & Love, J. (2020). Superpower: Simulation-based power analysis for factorial designs. R package version 0.0.3. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/Superpower/ Chang, A., Bosnyak, D. J., & Trainor, L. J. (2019). Rhythmicity facilitates pitch discrimination: Differential roles of low and high frequency neural oscillations. NeuroImage, 198, 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.05.007 Dankner, Y., Shalev, L., Carrasco, M., & Yuval-Greenberg, S. (2017). Prestimulus inhibition of saccades in adults with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as an index of temporal expectations. Psychological Science, 28(7), 835–850. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617694863 Ellis, R. J., & Jones, M. R. (2010). Rhythmic context modulates foreperiod effects. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 72(8), 2274–2288. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196701 Fiebelkorn, I. C., & Kastner, S. (2019). A rhythmic theory of attention. 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Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 19(1), 34–48. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.141 Oken, B. S., Salinsky, M. C., Elsas, S. M. (2006). Vigilances, alertness, or sustained attention: physiological basis and measurement. Clinical Neurophysiology, 117(9), 1885–1901. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2006.01.017. Schneider, W., Eschman, A., & Zuccolotto, A. (2002). E-Prime (Version 2.0). [Computer software and manual]. Pittsburgh, PA: Psychology Software Tools Inc. Shalev, N., & Nobre, A. C. (2020). Eyes wide open: regulation of arousal by temporal expectations. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.24.219428 Thomson, D. R., Besner, D., & Smilek, D. (2015). A resource-control account of sustained attention: Evidence from mind-wandering and vigilance paradigms. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(1), 82–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/174569161455 Trapp, S., Havlicek, O., Schirmer, A., & Keller, P. E. (2020). 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EEG data in 3 different flavors

Linear mixed effects model selection procedure, data, and results.

Humans spend a substantial amount of their waking lives engaged in spontaneous, self-generated thoughts that are decoupled from an ongoing activity or the current surroundings. This mental phenomenon has been studied under the umbrella term of “mind-wandering”. Recently, the family-resemblance framework for mind-wandering has been put forth which views mind-wandering as a heterogenous construct graded along multiple dimensions. In this study, we will investigate the relationship between mind-wandering and executive control with respect to the dimension of intentionality. The objective of the project is two-fold. Firstly, we will attempt to entrain theta-band oscillatory activity in the left DLPFC and probe the causal relation between the entrained oscillations and MW. Secondly, we aim to dissociate intentional and spontaneous MW by demonstrating that only the former draws on executive resources. To this end, will conduct an online TMS study involving the finger-tapping random sequence generation task (FT-RSGT) designed and validated by Boayue et al. (2021).

MATLAB code to recreate the numerical simulation as featured in our commentary. Supplementary materials.