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This article provides an interdisciplinary review of cognitive-motor entrainment, which involves the synchronization of oscillatory patterns in motor production, cognition, and environmental processing. The review summarizes findings from studies on three categories of neural entrainment and suggests that entrainment may have cognitive and motor benefits. The text discusses the Dynamic Attending Theory and the Neural Resonance Theory, which explain how predictable patterns and rhythmic stimuli can enhance neural processing. It also explores the potential clinical applications of neural entrainment, particularly in rehabilitative therapy using rhythmic auditory stimuli. However, more research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms and cognitive effects of entrainment. The text discusses the concept of entrainment, which is the synchronization of motor movements with rhythmic auditory stimuli. It explains that entrainment can occur unconsciously or with the help of cues, and it has been shown to influence various motor functions such as walking and hand functioning. The text also explores the use of rhythmic auditory stimulation as a rehabilitative tool for individuals with neuromotor impairments. Additionally, it discusses the potential benefits of artificially induced entrainment through techniques like electrical or magnetic stimulation. The text further examines the effects of cognitive-motor entrainment on dual-task performance, suggesting that entrainment may alleviate the traditional costs of dual-task interference. It concludes by highlighting the need for further research to clarify the mechanisms and parameters of cognitive-motor entrainment.The text discusses the need for further research on the relationship between physical activity and cognition, as well [Extracted from the article]

Entrainment theory, a multidisciplinary concept referring to the automatic synchronization of oscillatory patterns, can be used to explain interactions across motor production, cognition, and environmental processing. This review summarizes findings from the three primary categories of naturally occurring neural entrainment: body-brain entrainment of involuntary self-produced rhythms, bottom-up entrainment between environmental stimuli and the brain, and top-down neural entrainment of self-produced processes. Studies evaluating entrainment's impact on cognition suggest that synchronized neural activation may alleviate cognitive constraints. Entrainment has also been therapeutically implemented to decrease motor production variation and enhance movement quality. When considering the evidence for entrainment's ability to decrease the attentional load of a task and increase cognitive or motor production quality, the oscillatory synchronization of a cognitive and motor task may be a promising technique that can be applied to dual-tasking. An emerging body of literature suggests that cognitive-motor entrainment may alleviate dual-task cost and, in some cases, lead to a higher quality of psychological and physiological task performance than when the same tasks are performed in isolation. We propose pathways for future research and emphasize the therapeutic relevance further experimentation on the topic of entrainment may provide. By understanding how to maximize neural entrainment's cognitive and motor benefits, scientists and practitioners may be able to harness its benefits to enhance learning and rehabilitative practices.

The statistical structure of intrinsic parietal and parieto-frontal connectivity in monkeys was studied through hierarchical cluster analysis. Based on their inputs, parietal and frontal areas were grouped into different clusters, including a variable number of areas that in most instances occupied contiguous architectonic fields. Connectivity tended to be stronger locally: that is, within areas of the same cluster. Distant frontal and parietal areas were targeted through connections that in most instances were reciprocal and often of different strength. These connections linked parietal and frontal clusters formed by areas sharing basic functional properties. This led to five different medio-laterally oriented pillar domains spanning the entire extent of the parieto-frontal system, in the posterior parietal, anterior parietal, cingulate, frontal, and prefrontal cortex. Different information processing streams could be identified thanks to inter-domain connectivity. These streams encode fast hand reaching and its control, complex visuomotor action spaces, hand grasping, action/intention recognition, oculomotor intention and visual attention, behavioral goals and strategies, and reward and decision value outcome. Most of these streams converge on the cingulate domain, the main hub of the system. All of them are embedded within a larger eye-hand coordination network, from which they can be selectively set in motion by task demands., Competing Interests: Authors report no conflict of interest.