Autistic and schizotypal traits influence audiovisual temporal binding window malleability following alpha-band entrainment

The likelihood of integrating audiovisual (AV) information is reflected in the construct of temporal binding window (TBW), which accounts for the differing processing times across sensory regions. Wider TBWs within the autistic and schizotypal spectrums predict the degree of cognitive-perceptual and socio-communicative atypicalities. Alpha oscillations (8–13 Hz) represent an important neural mechanism for AV binding, and consequently alpha-band entrainment can shrink or expand TBWs. However, whether interindividual differences in autistic and schizotypal traits influence TBW modulations under entrainment is unexplored. Here, we used alpha-band sensory AV entrainment to explore how individual traits affect TBW malleability in neurotypical individuals (n = 113), administering rhythmic stimulations at slower (∼8.5 Hz) and faster alpha (∼12 Hz) frequencies before an AV simultaneity judgement task. Participants self-reported autistic and schizotypal traits, and a cluster analysis stratified individuals into three groups: high Cognitive-Perceptual Traits (CPT), high Socio-Affective Traits (SAT), Low Traits (LT). Results revealed that, across groups, upper alpha entrainment narrowed TBWs, enhancing AV temporal acuity. However, following lower alpha stimulation, only the CPT group exhibited wider TBWs, indicating a heightened responsiveness to entrainment stimulation, reflecting bottom-up atypical integration of sensory information into coherent models. Additionally, the typical leading sense asymmetry determining narrower TBWs for auditory-leading sequences was observed only in the LT group, suggesting that even sub-clinical cognitive-perceptual and socio-communicative atypicalities may disrupt basic aspects of cross-modal interactions. These findings suggest that socio-communicative and cognitive-perceptual anomalies associated with autistic and schizotypal traits influence low-level aspects of temporal binding across sensory modalities, including their malleability following alpha-band stimulation.