Hyperscanning speaks to the need to revise our understanding of the mind‒brain relation

Abstract

Several research labs around the world have been developing and applying hyperscanning, an innovative methodology that allows to observe what happens in the brains of two or more people when they interact in different social/interpersonal settings. Hyperscanning findings seem to point to the fact that synchronized interbrain activity may be caused by cooperative social interaction, showing that traditionally dominant perspectives about the mind‒brain relation (in particular, supervenience and internalism regarding mental contents) should be revised or replaced by others that adequately integrate the influence of human interactions on the neurobiological underpinnings of cognition (e.g., contextual emergence, externalism regarding mental contents, 4E cognition). This shift would undeniably also have important implications in the fields of mental health (e.g., opening avenues for the design of diagnoses and treatments for social skill conditions) and the social sciences (regarding aspects such as sociocultural interplay, collective decision-making and public participation, social conflict and polarization, interpersonal curiosity, and autonomy).