INTRINSIC NEURAL PEAK FREQUENCIES PREDICT RHYTHMIC BEHAVIOUR AND PERCEPTUAL PREFERENCES

Rhythmic behaviour (e.g., walking, speaking, tapping) is present in the daily lives of the majority of the population. Spontaneous Motor Tempo - the rate at which we show rhythmic motor behaviour with no external influence - varies substantially between individuals but has been found to be stable within the same individual. This raises the question of where these individual differences in motor behaviour arise. Theoretical frameworks suggest that intrinsic neural rhythms are related to rhythmic preferences, but these hypotheses have not been empirically tested. We investigated whether Spontaneous Motor Tempo was predicted by EEG resting-state peak frequencies in a sample of N=32 participants. We were additionally interested in how perceptual preference was related to intrinsic neural peak frequencies. Participants completed a finger tapping task (motor preference), a rhythm preference task using drum grooves (perceptual preference), and a 5-min eyes-open resting-state EEG recording. Peak frequencies were extracted from the resting-state EEG using a data-driven spectral fingerprinting approach across a wide range of frequencies. Our results showed that the individual theta peak frequency predicted both Spontaneous Motor Tempo and perceptual preference, and topographies were consistent with origins in motor and auditory regions, respectively. Individuals with a faster theta frequency tapped faster and preferred to listen to faster rhythms. In addition, gamma peak frequency also positively predicted finger tapping tempo. These findings suggest that intrinsic neural rhythms are implicated in rhythmic behaviour and perceptual preferences. Individual brain-rhythm patterns might therefore be a useful avenue to study differences in perception and behaviour.