Neural entrainment to the beat in multiple frequency bands in 6–7-year-old children

Entrainment to periodic acoustic stimuli has been found to relate both to the auditory and motor cortices, and it could be influenced by the maturity of these brain regions. However, existing research in this topic provides data about different oscillatory brain activities in different age groups with different musical background. In order to obtain a more coherent picture and examine early manifestations of entrainment, we assessed brain oscillations at multiple time scales (beta: 15–25 Hz, gamma: 28–48 Hz) and in steady state evoked potentials (SS-EPs in short) in 6–7-year-old children with no musical background right at the start of primary school before they learnt to read. Our goal was to exclude the effect of music training and reading, since previous studies have shown that sensorimotor entrainment (movement synchronization to the beat) is related to musical and reading abilities. We found evidence for endogenous anticipatory processing in the gamma band related to meter perception, and stimulus-related frequency specific responses. However, we did not find evidence for an interaction between auditory and motor networks, which suggests that endogenous mechanisms related to auditory processing may mature earlier than those that underlie motor actions, such as sensorimotor synchronization. •Neural mechanisms underlying entrainment to the beat have different developmental trajectories.•Induced beta fluctuations show high variability and lack of anticipatory timing.•Induced gamma activity show anticipatory responses related to meter perception.•Tapping performance and movement related SS-EPs indicate immature auditory-motor interactions.•Neural mechanisms related to motor actions seem to have a protracted development.