The phase of neural oscillatory signals aligns to the predicted onset of upcoming stimulation. Whether such phase alignments represent phase resets of underlying neural oscillations or just rhythmically evoked activity, and whether they can be observed in a rhythm-free visual context, however, remains unclear. Here, we recorded the magnetoencephalogram while participants were engaged in a temporal prediction task, judging the visual or tactile reappearance of a uniformly moving stimulus. The prediction conditions were contrasted with a control condition to dissociate phase adjustments of neural oscillations from stimulus-driven activity. We observed stronger delta band inter-trial phase consistency (ITPC) in a network of sensory, parietal and frontal brain areas, but no power increase reflecting stimulus-driven or prediction-related processes. Delta ITPC further correlated with prediction performance in the cerebellum and visual cortex. Our results provide evidence that phase alignments of low-frequency neural oscillations underlie temporal predictions in a non-rhythmic visual and crossmodal context.

中文翻译：

---

非节奏时间预测涉及低频增量振荡的相位重置

神经振荡信号的相位与即将到来的刺激的预测开始一致。然而，这种相位对齐是代表潜在神经振荡的相位重置还是只是有节奏地诱发活动，以及它们是否可以在无节奏的视觉环境中观察到，仍不清楚。在这里，我们在参与者从事时间预测任务时记录了脑磁图，判断均匀移动刺激的视觉或触觉再现。将预测条件与控制条件进行对比，以将神经振荡的相位调整与刺激驱动的活动分离。我们在感觉、顶叶和额叶大脑区域网络中观察到更强的 delta 带试验间相位一致性 (ITPC)，但没有反映刺激驱动或预测相关过程的功率增加。Delta ITPC 进一步与小脑和视觉皮层的预测性能相关。我们的结果提供证据表明，低频神经振荡的相位对齐是非节奏视觉和交叉模式环境中时间预测的基础。