A cross-frequency architecture links biological and behavioral periodicities
- 1Maastricht University
Abstract
Spontaneous behaviors, e.g., walking and speaking, are thought to rely on an internal sense of time that provides a scaffold for precise temporal coordination. Yet endogenous rates of many behavioral processes often diverge from arbitrarily defined unit of objective time, raising a fundamental question: what temporal reference frame coordinates behavior? Using high temporal resolution multimodal recordings, we show that endogenous body-brain periodicities (including pupil fluctuations, saccadic eye movements, respiration, cardiac activity and neural oscillations) as well as spontaneous behaviors such as tapping, walking, and speaking, form a cross-frequency architecture organized as an arithmetic progression in a natural logarithmic frequency space. Successive rates are spaced by about {varphi} (golden ratio {approx} 1.618 1), while the ratio between rhythm classes are captured by e (e {approx} 2.72 2). The absence of power law scaling and harmonic anchoring to individual heart rates excluded the possibility that the frequency architecture scales to, and depends uniquely on, a single pacemaker. Rather, the irrational scaling suggests each rate to be principally independent and maximally de-coupled from others, yet capable to dynamically engage in cross-frequency interactions. We propose that the body-brain frequency architecture may provide an emergent temporal reference frame to scaffold perception and action.
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BibTeX
@misc{criscuolo2026crossfrequency,
title = {{A cross-frequency architecture links biological and behavioral periodicities}},
author = {A. Criscuolo and T. Liu and M. Schwartze and S. A. Kotz},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.64898/2026.07.03.736377},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.03.736377v2},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A cross-frequency architecture links biological and behavioral periodicities
AU - A. Criscuolo
AU - T. Liu
AU - M. Schwartze
AU - S. A. Kotz
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/03
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.07.03.736377
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.03.736377v2
AB - Spontaneous behaviors, e.g., walking and speaking, are thought to rely on an internal sense of time that provides a scaffold for precise temporal coordination. Yet endogenous rates of many behavioral processes often diverge from arbitrarily defined unit of objective time, raising a fundamental question: what temporal reference frame coordinates behavior? Using high temporal resolution multimodal recordings, we show that endogenous body-brain periodicities (including pupil fluctuations, saccadic eye movements, respiration, cardiac activity and neural oscillations) as well as spontaneous behaviors such as tapping, walking, and speaking, form a cross-frequency architecture organized as an arithmetic progression in a natural logarithmic frequency space. Successive rates are spaced by about {varphi} (golden ratio {approx} 1.618 1), while the ratio between rhythm classes are captured by e (e {approx} 2.72 2). The absence of power law scaling and harmonic anchoring to individual heart rates excluded the possibility that the frequency architecture scales to, and depends uniquely on, a single pacemaker. Rather, the irrational scaling suggests each rate to be principally independent and maximally de-coupled from others, yet capable to dynamically engage in cross-frequency interactions. We propose that the body-brain frequency architecture may provide an emergent temporal reference frame to scaffold perception and action.
ER -