Abstract
People could behave in two different ways when engaging in interpersonal coordination activities: moving at the same frequency (isofrequency pattern, IP; the movement frequency ratio is 1:1) or at different frequencies (multifrequency pattern, MP; the movement frequency ratio is non 1:1). However, how the interpersonal coordination pattern modulates coordination outcome and the related brain-to-brain connectivity is not fully understood. Here, we adopted a continuous joint drawing task in which two participants co-drew parallelogram shapes according to two coordination patterns (i.e., IP vs. MP) while their brain activities were simultaneously recorded by the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) based hyperscanning technique. Dyads showed better coordination performance, as well as relatively greater interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) at the left frontopolar area, in the MP condition compared to the IP condition. Granger causality analyses further disclosed the bidirectional influences between the brains of the coordinating individuals. Such interpersonal influences were enhanced when individuals coordinated in the MP condition. Finally, the IBS during coordination was related to the dyadic self-control level. Taken together, our study revealed that interpersonal multifrequency coordination pattern facilitates the coordination efficiency, which was associated with the enhanced brain-to-brain connectivity. Our work also suggests the potentially positive role of self-control during the interpersonal coordination process.
Highlights
People frequently engaged in social interactions, the achievement of which are largely relied on our capacity to coordinate behaviors with others in space and time (Sebanz et al, 2006; Richardson et al, 2007; Nessler and Gilliland, 2009)
These channels were located at the bilateral frontopolar cortex (FPC)
Only the interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) at CH 1, which was located at the left FPC, showed the correlation with the coordination efficacy, r = 0.43, p < 0.05 (Figure 3B, false discovery rate (FDR) uncorrelated)
Summary
People frequently engaged in social interactions, the achievement of which are largely relied on our capacity to coordinate behaviors with others in space and time (Sebanz et al, 2006; Richardson et al, 2007; Nessler and Gilliland, 2009). We just perform movements at the same frequency (i.e., isofrequency pattern, IP), or mirroring, such as side-by-side walking or together singing/humming. We are required to perform non-mirroring pattern—acting at different frequencies (i.e., multifrequency pattern, MP), such as dancing or sports. Various interpersonal coordination tasks based on either MP or IP are developed and studied for different researching purposes separately. In real life people sometimes need to balance different coordination strategies to achieve the goal more effectively (Skewes et al, 2015). It would be important for us to understand how the interpersonal coordination pattern (IP vs. MP) modulates the coordination outcome and the related brain-to-brain connectivity
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