Here we review the role of brain oscillations in sensory processing. We examine the idea that neural entrainment of intrinsic oscillations underlies the processing of rhythmic stimuli in the context of simple isochronous rhythms as well as in music and speech. This has been a topic of growing interest over recent years; however, many issues remain highly controversial: how do fluctuations of intrinsic neural oscillations—both spontaneous and entrained to external stimuli—affect perception, and does this occur automatically or can it be actively controlled by top-down factors? Some of the controversy in the literature stems from confounding use of terminology. Moreover, it is not straightforward how theories and findings regarding isochronous rhythms generalize to more complex, naturalistic stimuli, such as speech and music. Here we aim to clarify terminology, and distinguish between different phenomena that are often lumped together as reflecting “neural entrainment” but may actually vary in their mechanistic underpinnings. Furthermore, we discuss specific caveats and confounds related to making inferences about oscillatory mechanisms from human electrophysiological data.

在这里，我们回顾了脑震荡在感觉处理中的作用。我们研究了这样一种想法，即在简单的等时节奏以及音乐和语音中，固有振荡的神经夹带是节奏性刺激处理的基础。近年来，这已成为人们越来越感兴趣的话题。但是，许多问题仍然存在很大争议：内在的神经振荡的波动（自发的和夹带在外部刺激中的）如何影响感知，并且这种感知会自动发生还是可以由自上而下的因素主动控制？文献中的某些争议源于对术语的混淆使用。此外，关于等时节律的理论和发现如何推广到更复杂，自然主义的刺激，例如言语和音乐，还不是很简单。在这里，我们旨在澄清术语，并区分通常被归纳为反映“神经夹带”但实际上可能在其机理基础上有所不同的不同现象。此外，我们讨论了与从人体电生理数据推断振荡机制有关的特定警告和混淆。