Synchronization between keyboard typing and neural oscillations

Abstract

Rhythmic neural activity synchronizes with certain rhythmic behaviors, such as breathing, sniffing, saccades, and speech. The extent to which neural oscillations synchronize with higher-level and more complex behaviors is largely unknown. Here we investigated electrophysiological synchronization with keyboard typing, which is an omnipresent behavior daily engaged by an uncountably large number of people. Keyboard typing is rhythmic with frequency characteristics roughly the same as neural oscillatory dynamics associated with cognitive control, notably through midfrontal theta (4 -7 Hz) oscillations. We tested the hypothesis that synchronization occurs between typing and midfrontal theta, and breaks down when errors are committed. Thirty healthy participants typed words and sentences on a keyboard without visual feedback, while EEG was recorded. Typing rhythmicity was investigated by inter-keystroke interval analyses and by a kernel density estimation method. We used a multivariate spatial filtering technique to investigate frequency-specific synchronization between typing and neuronal oscillations. Our results demonstrate theta rhythmicity in typing (around 6.5 Hz) through the two different behavioral analyses. Synchronization between typing and neuronal oscillations occurred at frequencies ranging from 4 to 15 Hz, but to a larger extent for lower frequencies. However, peak synchronization frequency was idiosyncratic across subjects, therefore not specific to theta nor to midfrontal regions, and correlated somewhat with peak typing frequency. Errors and trials associated with stronger cognitive control were not associated with changes in synchronization at any frequency. As a whole, this study shows that brain-behavior synchronization does occur during keyboard typing but is not specific to midfrontal theta. Significance statementEvery day, millions of people type on keyboards. Keyboard typing is a rhythmic behavior, with inter-keystroke-intervals of around 135 ms (~7 Hz), which is roughly the same frequency as the brain rhythm implicated in cognitive control ("theta" band, ~6 Hz). Here we investigated the hypothesis that the EEG signature of cognitive control is synchronized with keyboard typing. By recording EEG during typing in 30 healthy subjects we showed that keyboard typing indeed follows theta rhythmicity, and that synchronization between typing and neural oscillations occurs. However, synchronization was not limited to theta but occurred at frequencies ranging from 4 to 15 Hz, and in several regions. Brain-behavior synchronization during typing thus seems more nuanced and complex than we originally hypothesized.