Putting our heads together: interpersonal neural synchronization as a biological mechanism for shared intentionality

Abstract

Shared intentionality, or collaborative interactions in which individuals have a shared goal and must coordinate their efforts, is a core component of human interaction. However, the biological bases of shared intentionality and, specifically, the processes by which the brain adjusts to the sharing of common goals, remain largely unknown. Using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), coordination of cerebral hemodynamic activation was found in subject pairs when completing a puzzle together in contrast to a condition in which subjects completed identical but individual puzzles (same intention without shared intentionality). Interpersonal neural coordination was also greater when completing a puzzle together compared to two control conditions including the observation of another pair completing the same puzzle task or watching a movie with a partner (shared experience). Further, permutation testing revealed that the time course of neural activation of one subject predicted that of their partner, but not that of others completing the identical puzzle in different partner sets. Results indicate unique brain-to-brain coupling specific to shared intentionality beyond what has been previously found by investigating the fundamentals of social exchange.

What has social neuroscience learned from hyperscanning studies of spoken communication? A systematic review

“…Seven J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f studies employed these experimental paradigms (Table 3), and all but one used fNIRS. IBS was predominantly identified either in the frontal (Fishburn et al, 2018;Lu et al, 2019a;Lu and Hao, 2019;Lu et al, 2020) or both the frontal and the temporal-parietal regions (Antonenko et al, 2019;Lu et al, 2019b;Mayseless et al, 2019;Xue et al, 2018). Fishburn et al (2018) reported IBS in the PFC for triads cooperatively solving creative…”

“…The effects of cooperation, problem-solving, and creativity in relation to IBS have been popular topics of study in ecological settings (Antonenko et al, 2019;Fishburn et al, 2018;Lu and Hao, 2019;Lu et al, 2019aLu et al, , 2019bLu et al, 2020;Mayseless et al, 2019). Seven J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f studies employed these experimental paradigms (Table 3), and all but one used fNIRS.…”

“…This connects with the theme of cooperation/collaboration which arose in several ecological studies entailing creative and/or problem-solving scenarios engaging two or more participants. Other than speaker-listener joint-attention and coordination, these experimental setups required higher cognitive functioning to complete shared tasks and J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f indicated IBS in prefrontal and temporo-parietal regions (e.g., Fishburn et al, 2018;Lu et al, 2020;Mayseless et al, 2019;Xue et al, 2018). In one example, Xue et al (2018), examined combinations of pairs with respect to creativity while solving and presenting their solutions to problems.…”

Capturing Human Interaction in the Virtual Age: A Perspective on the Future of fNIRS Hyperscanning

“…ToI/Joint open-ended ToC (N = 1) (Fishburn et al, 2018), as well as between Analog ToI/Joint goal-driven ToC, Analog ToI/Joint open-ended ToC, and Mixed ToI/Joint goal-driven ToC (N = 1) (Yang et al, 2020).…”

Commentary: Using second-person neuroscience to elucidate the mechanisms of reciprocal social interaction

“…We provide the mechanisms and several examples throughout the article of how this inter-brain neural synchrony between the "mutual social attention systems" of interacting partners facilitates more attunement and greater allocation of attention to a specific social interaction, its participants and its goals, while tuning out other potential interactions. We concluded that face-to-face naturalistic interactions seem to increase the coupling between participants' "mutual social attention systems, " resulting in more attunement, and in greater allocation of attention and involvement in a specific social interaction, its participants and its goals (Dai et al, 2018;Fishburn et al, 2018;Davidesco et al, 2019).…”