Keeping time and rhythm by internal simulation of sensory stimuli and behavioral actions

Abstract

Effective behavior often requires synchronizing our actions with changes in the environment. Rhythmic changes in the environment are easy to predict, and we can readily time our actions to them. Yet, how the brain encodes and maintains rhythms is not known. Here, we trained primates to internally maintain rhythms of different tempos and performed large-scale recordings of neuronal activity across the sensory-motor hierarchy. Results show that maintaining rhythms engages multiple brain areas, including visual, parietal, premotor, prefrontal, and hippocampal regions. Each recorded area displayed oscillations in firing rates and oscillations in broadband local field potential power that reflected the temporal and spatial characteristics of an internal metronome, which flexibly encoded fast, medium, and slow tempos. The presence of widespread metronome-related activity, in the absence of stimuli and motor activity, suggests that internal simulation of stimuli and actions underlies timekeeping and rhythm maintenance.