Abstract
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an increasingly popular technology for studying social cognition. In particular, fNIRS permits simultaneous measurement of hemodynamic activity in two or more individuals interacting in a naturalistic setting. Here, we used fNIRS hyperscanning to study social cognition and communication in human dyads engaged in cooperative and obstructive interaction while they played the game of Jenga™. Novel methods were developed to identify synchronized channels for each dyad and a structural node-based spatial registration approach was utilized for inter-dyad analyses. Strong inter-brain neural synchrony (INS) was observed in the posterior region of the right middle and superior frontal gyrus, in particular Brodmann area 8 (BA8), during cooperative and obstructive interaction. This synchrony was not observed during the parallel game play condition and the dialog section, suggesting that BA8 was involved in goal-oriented social interaction such as complex interactive movements and social decision-making. INS was also observed in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), in particular Brodmann 9, during cooperative interaction only. These additional findings suggest that BA9 may be particularly engaged when theory-of-mind (ToM) is required for cooperative social interaction. The new methods described here have the potential to significantly extend fNIRS applications to social cognitive research.
Highlights
A pervasive challenge in social neuroscience is how to model everyday human interactions in the laboratory (Hari and Kujala, 2009)
Two-sample T-tests revealed that there were no significant differences between the cooperation condition and the other two conditions for time interval
Inter-brain synchrony was observed in Brodmann area 8 (BA8) during both cooperative and obstructive interaction conditions but not during the parallel play condition and the dialog section
Summary
A pervasive challenge in social neuroscience is how to model everyday human interactions in the laboratory (Hari and Kujala, 2009). FNIRS allows measurement of brain activity in environments with greater ecological validity, an especially important advantage, as studies have shown that simulated tasks do not always generate the same brain activity as they do in their real-life settings (Okamoto et al, 2004) As such NIRS is increasingly considered an emerging tool in social cognitive neuroscience that can be used in a natural context with free hand movement and face-to-face oral communication. This technology offers an easy to apply and reliable brain imaging technology for measuring inter-personal interactions
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