Elevated Inter-Brain Coherence Between Subjects With Concordant Stances During Discussion of Social Issues

Abstract

Social media platforms offer convenient, instantaneous social sharing on a mass scale with tremendous impact on public perceptions, opinions, and behavior. There is a need to understand why information spreads including the human motivations, cognitive processes, and neural dynamics of large-scale sharing. This study introduces a novel approach for investigating the effect social media messaging and in-person discussion has on the inter-brain dynamics within small groups of participants. The psychophysiological impact of information campaigns and narrative messaging within a closed social media environment was assessed using 24-channel wireless EEG. Data were acquired from three- or four-person groups while subjects debated contemporary social issues framed by four scenarios of varying controversy: (a) investing in ethical vs. unethical corporations, (b) selecting travel destination based on social awareness, (c) determining verdict in a murder trial and the punishment of life in prison or death penalty, and (d) decision to vaccinate. Pre-/post-scenario questionnaires assess the effects of the social media information. Inter-brain coherence between subject pairs on each social issue discussed by subjects was analyzed by concordance, agreement vs. disagreement, and by group unanimity, unanimous vs. not unanimous. Subject pairs that agreed on the social issues raised in the scenarios had significantly greater inter-brain coherence in gamma frequency range than disagreeing pairs over cortical regions known to be involved in social interactions. These effects were magnified when comparing groups where subject pairs were unanimous in their stance on the social issues for some but not all scenarios. While there was considerable overlap between scenarios in what EEG channels were significant, there was enough variability to indicate the possibility of scenario-specific effects on inter-brain coherence.

Intermittent brain network reconfigurations and the resistance to social media influence

“…We have investigated the neural correlates of complex decision-making during online social media and in-person social interactions and assessed opinion change with questionnaires that asked participants for their opinions on several topical issues. Opinions on these topical issues were gathered before and after the interaction with a simulated social media platform and after in-person discussion of the content ( Figure 1 ; see also Richard et al, 2021 ). EEG was concurrently collected (see Supporting Information Figure S1 for electrode montage) during the social media and in-person interactions and was analyzed to understand the rapid reconfigurations in EEG-derived brain connectivity matrices during the complex process of information gathering and opinion change and/or formation.…”

“…Subjects were screened and the ones diagnosed with sleep, psychiatric, neurological, eating, behavioral (including attention-deficit disorder), or cardiopulmonary/vascular disorders, uncontrolled blood pressure, heart disease, HIV+/AIDS, head trauma within the past 5 years, regular use of prescription drugs that can alter EEG or impair their ability to participate, use of illegal drugs (recreational and medical marijuana users were not excluded), excessive use of nicotine, alcohol and/or caffeine, untreated vision or hearing issues, pregnant or nursing, and inadequate familiarity with the English language were not included. For more information on the recruiting procedure, we refer the reader to Richard et al (2021) . The data acquisition for this study using human participants was reviewed and approved by Alpha IRB and Air Force Research Laboratory.…”

Intermittent brain network reconfigurations and the resistance to social media influence

“…We have investigated the neural correlates of complex decision making during online social media and in-person social interactions and assessed opinion change with questionnaires that asked participants for their opinions on several topical issues. Opinions on these topical issues were gathered before and after the interaction with a simulated social media platform and after in-person discussion of the content (Figure 1, see also Richard et. al., 2021).…”

“…Subjects were screened and the ones diagnosed with sleep, psychiatric, neurological, eating, behavioral (including Attention Deficit Disorder), or cardio-pulmonary/vascular disorders, uncontrolled blood pressure, heart disease, HIV+/AIDS, head trauma within the past 5 years, regular use of prescription drugs that can alter EEG or impair their ability to participate, use of illegal drugs (recreational and medical marijuana users were not excluded), excessive use of nicotine, alcohol and/or caffeine, untreated vision or hearing issues, pregnant or nursing, and inadequate familiarity with the English language were not included. For more information on the recruiting procedure we refer the reader to (Richard et. al., 2021).…”

Inter-brain synchronization occurs without physical co-presence during cooperative online gaming

“…Increased inter-brain synchrony has been linked with social closeness (Kinreich et al, 2017), rapport (Nozawa et al, 2019), agreement (Richard et al, 2021), sense of joint agency (Shiraishi and Shimada, 2021), prosociality (Hu et al, 2017), similarity of flow states (Nozawa et al, 2021), shared meaning-making (Stolk et al, 2014), and cooperation (Cui et al, 2012;Toppi et al, 2016;Szymanski et al, 2017;Cheng et al, 2019). Phase-coupled brain stimulation has led to increased interpersonal synchrony (Novembre et al, 2017), as well as improved interpersonal learning (Pan et al, 2020b).…”