Delta phase resetting mediates non-rhythmic temporal prediction

Neural oscillations adjust their phase towards the predicted onset of rhythmic stimulation to optimize the processing of relevant information. Whether such phase alignments can be observed in non-rhythmic contexts, however, remains unclear. Here, we recorded the magnetoencephalogram while healthy participants were engaged in a temporal prediction task judging the visual or crossmodal (tactile) reappearance of a uniformly moving visual stimulus after it disappeared behind an occluder. The temporal prediction conditions were contrasted with a working memory control condition to dissociate phase adjustments of endogenous neural oscillations from stimulus-driven activity. During temporal predictions, we observed stronger delta band inter-trial phase consistency (ITPC) in a network of sensory, parietal and frontal brain areas. Delta ITPC further correlated with individual prediction performance in parts of the cerebellum and in visual cortex. Our results provide evidence that phase alignments of low-frequency neural oscillations underlie temporal predictions in non-rhythmic unimodal and crossmodal contexts.