Neurobiological Approaches to Interpersonal Coordination: Achievements and Pitfalls

Abstract

Although spontaneous interpersonal coordination was originally reported in the early 1960s, the accurate measurement of this phenomenon is very recent. Sophisticated methods used by dynamic systems theory and social neuroscientific perspectives have allowed capturing and analyzing patterns of neural and bodily coordination between interactants, favoring a deeper understanding of the factors and processes involved. In the present chapter, we review neurobiological evidence on interpersonal coordination and acknowledge that, despite the use of cutting-edge technology, extant findings have not yet resulted in an understanding of real-life interpersonal coordination. Theoretical and methodological efforts in social neuroscience aimed to explore interpersonal dynamics through joint tasks have been tacitly based on an individualistic approach to social cognition that underestimates the social nature of interactional phenomena. In turn, dynamic systems theory tends to approach human interaction in the same way as any complex system, disregarding the specific features of social life. We argue instead that interpersonal coordination should be studied under the assumption that people engage in meaningful interactions, so that its study requires the design of more ecological paradigms integrating the benefits of high-precision temporal recordings and a holistic account of the brain and bodily dynamics that occur during real human interaction.