Identification of Cortices with Characteristics of Rhythmic Entrainment and Its Periodicity

Listening to rhythmic patterns leads to neural entrainment to beat and meter periodicities. The debate over whether entrainment is a mere reflection of external stimuli, or an inherent intrinsic response persists. The objective of this study was to ascertain whether there are cerebral cortices, which satisfy 3 distinct features of intrinsic entrainment; first, the ability to sustain neural oscillations even in random beat omission; second, a requisite latency period for the build-up before initiating a response to rhythmic stimuli; and third, the persistence of these neural oscillations gradually recedes following the cessation of the stimulus. In 27 patients with medically intractable epilepsy, electrocorticography data were obtained with 2- or 3-beat sound stimulations with random omissions. We found that there are cortices which satisfy all three requirements of intrinsic entrainment. The cortices synchronized with beat were in Brodmann areas (BA) 21, and 22, whereas the cortices synchronized with meter corresponded to BA3, 6, 9, 22, 40, and 44. We showed that entrainment is an intrinsic response, with distinct neural processing for beat and meter. These insights advance our understanding of neural entrainment to beat and meter periodicities.