Beta oscillation is an indicator for two patterns of sensorimotor synchronization

Previous study indicates that there are two distinct behavioral patterns in the sensory-motor synchronization task with short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA; 2-3 s) or long SOA (beyond 4 s). However, the underlying neural indicators and mechanisms have not been elucidated. The present study applied magnetoencephalography (MEG) technology to examine the functional role of several oscillations (beta, gamma, and mu) in sensorimotor synchronization with different SOAs to identify a reliable neural indicator. During MEG recording, participants underwent a listening task without motor response, a sound-motor synchronization task, and a motor-only continuation task. These tasks were used to explore whether and how the activity of oscillations changes across different behavioral patterns with different tempos. Results showed that during both the listening and the synchronization task, the beta oscillation changes with the tempo. Moreover, the event-related synchronization of beta oscillations was significantly correlated with motor timing during synchronization. In contrast, mu activity only changes with the tempo in the synchronization task, while the gamma activity remains unchanged. In summary, the current study indicates that beta oscillation could be an indicator of behavioral patterns between fast tempo and slow tempo in sensorimotor synchronization. Also, it is likely to be the potential mechanism of maintaining rhythmic continuous movements with short SOA, which is embedded within the 3 s time window.