Predicting the individual differences of audiovisual temporal perception based on the neural oscillations of resting-state EEG

Temporal consistency is an essential principle of multisensory integration. However, there are significant individual differences in audiovisual temporal perception. Previous research has found that individual alpha frequency (IAF) could predict the audiovisual temporal perception quantified by temporal binding windows (TBWs) in adults. In addition to local neural oscillations, multisensory integration relies on interactions among perceptual areas, multimodal regions, and prefrontal areas. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether the IAF and resting-state functional brain networks could predict TBW in older individuals. Twenty-one older participants performed an audiovisual simultaneity judgment (SJ) task with the beep-flash stimuli while recording the resting-state EEG data. First, we found that the IAF could negatively predict the individual TBWs. Second, the enlarged TBWs were accompanied by a more significant clustering coefficient (C), global efficiency (Ge), local efficiency (Le), and a shorter characteristic path length (CPL) in the beta band (14-30 Hz). Our results suggested that IAF might reflect a fine temporal sampling mechanism. The graph theoretic indices (i.e., C, Ge, Le, and CPL) reflected the ability to transfer and process information globally. Older individuals with finer temporal sampling capabilities and stronger global information transfer abilities exhibit enhanced audiovisual temporal perception. The neural oscillation in the resting-state EEG is an efficient neural marker of individual differences in audiovisual temporal perception in older adults.