Abstract
BackgroundSocial behavior and interactions pervasively shape and influence our lives and relationships. Competition, in particular, has become a core topic in social neuroscience since it stresses the relevance and salience of social comparison processes between the inter-agents that are involved in a common task. The majority of studies, however, investigated such kind of social interaction via one-person individual paradigms, thus not taking into account relevant information concerning interdependent participants’ behavioral and neural responses. In the present study, dyads of volunteers participated in a hyperscanning paradigm and competed in a computerized attention task while their electrophysiological (EEG) activity and performance were monitored and recorded. Behavioral data and inter-brain coupling measures based on EEG frequency data were then computed and compared across different experimental conditions: a control condition (individual task, t0), a first competitive condition (pre-feedback condition, t1), and a second competitive condition following a positive reinforcing feedback (post-feedback condition, t2).ResultsResults showed that during competitive tasks participants’ performance was improved with respect to control condition (reduced response times and error rates), with a further specific improvement after receiving a reinforcing feedback. Concurrently, we observed a reduction of inter-brain functional connectivity (primarily involving bilateral prefrontal areas) for slower EEG frequency bands (delta and theta). Finally, correlation analyses highlighted a significant association between cognitive performance and inter-brain connectivity measures.ConclusionsThe present results may help identifying specific patterns of behavioral and inter-brain coupling measures associated to competition and processing of social reinforcements.
Highlights
Social behavior and interactions pervasively shape and influence our lives and relationships
A recent hyperscanning study seems to be in line with such evidence, since it revealed that two cooperative partners show increased behavioral and neural synchrony than competitive ones during a joint task [5]
Primary findings highlighted: (1) the effect of competition on cognitive performance, with increased performances during competitive with respect to control tasks, and the salience of an external reinforcing feedback concerning performance levels; (2) a downward modulation of inter-brain connectivity associated to competition; and (3) a significant relationship between brain and behavioral measures
Summary
Social behavior and interactions pervasively shape and influence our lives and relationships. Social behavior and social interactions pervasively shape and influence our lives and relationships, it is not surprising that investigation of the so-called “social brain” and of the neural bases of human social skills is attracting more and more attention [1] Within this scenario, cooperation and competition are the primary (and opposite) interaction dynamics that define different ways to jointly execute a common task. Previous studies underlined the importance to explore cooperative interactions since, considering mankind social organization, it constitutes a source of Balconi and Vanutelli BMC Neurosci (2018) 19:63 orbitofrontal areas, while prefrontal and more posterior (parietal) cortices are involved during competition The authors interpreted such result starting from evolutionary and developmental psychology and stressed the highly rewarding effect of cooperation and a sort of merging of the two partners. It is significant to explore cooperation as a highly gratifying, positive, and rewarding condition, the effects related to disengagement, social exclusion, social differentiation and hierarchic mechanisms deserve greater attention
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