Interpersonal neural synchrony when predicting others’ actions during a game of rock-paper-scissors

Autor(en)
Ezgi Kayhan, Trinh Nguyen, Daniel Matthes, Miriam Langeloh, Christine Michel, Jing Jiang, Stefanie Hoehl
Abstrakt

As members of a social species, we spend most of our time interacting with others. In interactions, we tend to mutually align our behavior and brain responses to communicate more effectively. In a semi-computerized version of the Rock-Paper-Scissors game, we investigated whether people show enhanced interpersonal neural synchronization when making explicit predictions about others’ actions. Across four experimental conditions, we measured the dynamic brain activity using the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning method. Results showed that interpersonal neural synchrony was enhanced when participants played the game together as they would do in real life in comparison to when they played the game on their own. We found no evidence of increased neural synchrony when participants made explicit predictions about others’ actions. Hence, neural synchrony may depend on mutual natural interaction rather than an explicit prediction strategy. This study is important, as it examines one of the presumed functions of neural synchronization namely facilitating predictions.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Psychologie der Entwicklung und Bildung
Externe Organisation(en)
Istituto italiano di tecnologia, Universität Potsdam, Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften, Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft und Kultur Leipzig, Universität Leipzig, University of Iowa, Universität Heidelberg
Journal
Scientific Reports (Nature Publisher Group)
Band
12
Anzahl der Seiten
11
ISSN
2045-2322
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16956-z
Publikationsdatum
07-2022
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
501014 Neuropsychologie, 501011 Kognitionspsychologie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
General
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/f7e46700-e6c5-41e9-8c90-ff8e2aa9ac23