Temporal expectation driven by rhythms during concurrent n-back task

Temporal expectations optimize behavior by increasing not only motor speed but also perceptual speed. A growing number of studies have suggested that temporal expectancies could be created by rhythms. However, whether temporal expectation triggered by rhythm only relies on a bottom-up, stimulus-driven manner or demands the involvement of controlled attention remains unclear. A dual-task procedure was used in the current study. Participants were told that when they saw a target occurring after a stimuli sequence, respond as quickly as possible, and performed N-back tasks at the same time. The results showed that the reaction times under regular trials were shorter than that under irregular trials in both 0-back and 2-back tasks, indicating that the rhythm-based temporal expectation effect survived working memory interference. Revealed that temporal expectations driven by rhythms were set up in an automatic bottom-up manner.