Educational diversity and group creativity: Evidence from fNIRS hyperscanning

The impact of parenting practices and family economy on psychological wellbeing and learning patterns in higher education students

BACKGROUND

There is a large literature on the significant impact of rearing factors in the psychological development of different child's learning patterns and wellbeing in elementary and secondary schools, but there is a scarcity of studies on to what extent those influences remain stable up to higher education.

OBJECTIVE

In this study, parenting practices and family status were analyzed as predictors of the different learning styles, psychological difficulties, mental health factors, and academic performance, comprising the psychosocial diversity in learning (DinL) at the university classroom.

METHODS

Using a cross-sectional design, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of 2522 students at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). It included a DinL scale measuring five psychological learning dimensions (coping with difficulties, effort, autonomy, Social/Physical Context, and understanding/career interest), plus several items on retrospective parenting practices, family, and sociodemographic variables. Multiple regressions and analyses of variance were conducted with the family factors as independent variables and the learning factors as dependent variables.

RESULTS

Results showed parenting variables, parents' education, and family economy as having a significant impact on psychological learning dimensions, academic performance, and especially on the students' wellbeing and mental health status, being an important contributors to explain the DinL in the university classroom.

CONCLUSION

The results bring interesting conclusions for developmental and health psychologists when working with parents aimed at fostering wellbeing and learning strategies related to academic inclusion and achievement.

Bridging Stories and Science: An fNIRS-based hyperscanning investigation into child learning in STEM

Early STEM education is crucial for later learning. This novel study utilised fNIRS to examine how STEM teaching methods (i.e., traditional, storytelling, storyboarding) affect neural activity synchronisation between teachers and students. Our results showed that left and right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) for storytelling teaching versus traditional teaching, superior temporal gyrus for storyboard teaching versus traditional teaching, and left angular gyrus for storyboard and storytelling teaching were significant different in brain synchronisation. In the storytelling teaching condition, left supramarginal gyrus brain synchrony was found to improve STEM learning outcomes. In the storyboard teaching condition, IFG brain synchrony correlated positively with STEM learning improvement. The findings confirmed that story-based teaching and storyboarding can improve STEM learning efficacy at the neural level and unscored the significant role of neural synchronization as a predictor of learning outcomes.

Is neuroimaging ready for the classroom? A systematic review of hyperscanning studies in learning

Whether education research can be informed by findings from neuroscience studies has been hotly debated since Bruer's (1997) famous claim that neuroscience and education are "a bridge too far". However, this claim came before recent advancements in portable electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technologies, and second-person neuroscience techniques that brought about significant headway in understanding instructor-learner interactions in the classroom. To explore whether neuroscience and education are still two very separate fields, we systematically review 15 hyperscanning studies that were conducted in real-world classrooms or that implemented a teaching-learning task to investigate instructor-learner dynamics. Findings from this investigation illustrate that inter-brain synchrony between instructor and learner is an additional and valuable dimension to understand the complex web of instructor- and learner-related variables that influence learning. Importantly, these findings demonstrate the possibility of conducting real-world classroom studies with portable neuroimaging techniques and highlight the potential of such studies in providing translatable real-world implications. Once thought of as incompatible, a successful coupling between neuroscience and education is now within sight.

Quantification of inter-brain coupling: A review of current methods used in haemodynamic and electrophysiological hyperscanning studies

Hyperscanning is a form of neuroimaging experiment where the brains of two or more participants are imaged simultaneously whilst they interact. Within the domain of social neuroscience, hyperscanning is increasingly used to measure inter-brain coupling (IBC) and explore how brain responses change in tandem during social interaction. In addition to cognitive research, some have suggested that quantification of the interplay between interacting participants can be used as a biomarker for a variety of cognitive mechanisms aswell as to investigate mental health and developmental conditions including schizophrenia, social anxiety and autism. However, many different methods have been used to quantify brain coupling and this can lead to questions about comparability across studies and reduce research reproducibility. Here, we review methods for quantifying IBC, and suggest some ways moving forward. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we reviewed 215 hyperscanning studies, across four different brain imaging modalities: functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), functional magnetic resonance (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). Overall, the review identified a total of 27 different methods used to compute IBC. The most common hyperscanning modality is fNIRS, used by 119 studies, 89 of which adopted wavelet coherence. Based on the results of this literature survey, we first report summary statistics of the hyperscanning field, followed by a brief overview of each signal that is obtained from each neuroimaging modality used in hyperscanning. We then discuss the rationale, assumptions and suitability of each method to different modalities which can be used to investigate IBC. Finally, we discuss issues surrounding the interpretation of each method.

Similarities and Distinctions between Cortical Neural Substrates That Underlie Generation of Malevolent Creative Ideas

Creativity can be driven by negative intentions, and this is called malevolent creativity (MC). It is a type of creativity that serves antisocial purposes and deliberately leads to harmful or immoral results. A possible classification indicates that there are three kinds of MC in daily life: hurting people, lying, and playing tricks. This study aimed to explore similar and distinct neural substrates underlying these different kinds of MC idea generation. The participants were asked to perform different MC tasks, and their neural responses were recorded using a functional near-infrared spectroscopy device. The findings revealed that most regions within the prefrontal and temporal lobes [e.g., the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC), and right angular gyrus] were involved in the three MC tasks. However, the right frontopolar cortex (rFPC) was more activated and less coupled with the rDLPFC and right precuneus during the lying task than during the other tasks. Thus, rFPC may play an important role in constructing novel lies. In the lying task, individuals were more selfish and less compassionate. In the playing tricks and hurting people tasks, there was less neural coupling between the rDLPFC and the left inferior frontal gyrus/right inferior parietal lobule than that in the lying task. This may imply that selfish motivation is released when individuals try to ignore victims' distress or generate aggressive tricks in hurting people or playing tricks tasks. These findings indicate that the three kinds of MC idea generation involve common cortical regions related to creative idea generation and moral judgment, whereas differences in cortical responses exist because of their unique features.

Inter-Brain Synchrony Pattern Investigation on Triadic Board Game Play-Based Social Interaction: An fNIRS Study

Recent advances in functional neuroimaging techniques, including methodologies such as fNIRS, have enabled the evaluation of inter-brain synchrony (IBS) induced by interpersonal interactions. However, the social interactions assumed in existing dyadic hyperscanning studies do not sufficiently emulate polyadic social interactions in the real world. Therefore, we devised an experimental paradigm that incorporates the Korean folk board game "Yut-nori" to reproduce social interactions that emulate social activities in the real world. We recruited 72 participants aged 25.2 ± 3.9 years (mean ± standard deviation) and divided them into 24 triads to play Yut-nori, following the standard or modified rules. The participants either competed against an opponent (standard rule) or cooperated with an opponent (modified rule) to achieve a goal efficiently. Three different fNIRS devices were employed to record cortical hemodynamic activations in the prefrontal cortex both individually and simultaneously. Wavelet transform coherence (WTC) analyses were performed to assess prefrontal IBS within a frequency range of 0.05-0.2 Hz. Consequently, we observed that cooperative interactions increased prefrontal IBS across overall frequency bands of interest. In addition, we also found that different purposes for cooperation generated different spectral characteristics of IBS depending on the frequency bands. Moreover, IBS in the frontopolar cortex (FPC) reflected the influence of verbal interactions. The findings of our study suggest that future hyperscanning studies should consider polyadic social interactions to reveal the properties of IBS in real-world interactions.

Increased Interpersonal Brain Synchronization in Romantic Couples Is Associated with Higher Honesty: An fNIRS Hyperscanning Study

Previous studies on the brain-brain interaction of deception have shown different patterns of interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) between different genders. However, the brain-brain mechanisms in the cross-sex composition need to be better understood. Furthermore, there needs to be more discussion about how relationships (e.g., romantic couples vs. strangers) affect the brain-brain mechanism under interactive deception. To elaborate on these issues, we used the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning approach to simultaneously measure interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) in romantic couples (heterosexual) and cross-sex stranger dyads during the sender-receiver game. The behavioral results found that the deception rate of males was lower than that of females, and romantic couples were deceived less than strangers. Significantly increased IBS was observed in the frontopolar cortex (FPC) and right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) of the romantic couple group. Moreover, the IBS is negatively correlated with the deception rate. No significantly increased IBS was observed in cross-sex stranger dyads. The result corroborated the lower deception of males and romantic couples in cross-sex interactions. Furthermore, IBS in the PFC and rTPJ was the underlying dual-brain neural basis for supporting honesty in romantic couples.

Distinct inter-brain synchronization patterns underlying group decision-making under uncertainty with partners in different interpersonal relationships

Humans may behave in different manners when making decisions with friends and strangers. Whether the interpersonal relationship and the characteristics of the individuals in the group affected the group decision-making under uncertainty in the real-time interaction remains unknown. Using the turn-based Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), the present study examined the group decision-making propensity under uncertainty with partners in different interpersonal relationships and interpersonal orientations. Corresponding inter-brain synchronization (IBS) patterns at the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were also uncovered with the fNIRS-based hyperscanning approach. Behavioral results identified that dyads in the friend group exhibited the uncertainty-averse propensity when comparing with the stranger group. The fNIRS results reported that feedback-related IBS at the left inferior frontal gyrus (l-IFG) and medial frontopolar cortex (mFPC) during different feedbacks was modulated by interpersonal relationships. The IBS at all channels in the PFC during the positive and negative feedbacks, respectively, predicted the decision-making propensity under uncertainty in the stranger and friend groups based on the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. The moderating role of the social value orientation (SVO) was also verified in the mediation effect of the dyad closeness on the decision-making propensity under uncertainty via the IBS at the right lateral frontopolar cortex (r-FPC). These findings demonstrated disparate behavioral responses and inter-brain synchronization patterns underlying group decision-making under uncertainty with partners in different interpersonal relationships.

Virtual (Zoom) Interactions Alter Conversational Behavior and Interbrain Coherence

A growing number of social interactions are taking place virtually on videoconferencing platforms. Here, we explore potential effects of virtual interactions on observed behavior, subjective experience, and neural "single-brain" and "interbrain" activity via functional near-infrared spectroscopy neuroimaging. We scanned a total of 36 human dyads (72 participants, 36 males, 36 females) who engaged in three naturalistic tasks (i.e., problem-solving, creative-innovation, socio-emotional task) in either an in-person or virtual (Zoom) condition. We also coded cooperative behavior from audio recordings. We observed reduced conversational turn-taking behavior during the virtual condition. Given that conversational turn-taking was associated with other metrics of positive social interaction (e.g., subjective cooperation and task performance), this measure may be an indicator of prosocial interaction. In addition, we observed altered patterns of averaged and dynamic interbrain coherence in virtual interactions. Interbrain coherence patterns that were characteristic of the virtual condition were associated with reduced conversational turn-taking. These insights can inform the design and engineering of the next generation of videoconferencing technology.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Videoconferencing has become an integral part of our lives. Whether this technology impacts behavior and neurobiology is not well understood. We explored potential effects of virtual interaction on social behavior, brain activity, and interbrain coupling. We found that virtual interactions were characterized by patterns of interbrain coupling that were negatively implicated in cooperation. Our findings are consistent with the perspective that videoconferencing technology adversely affects individuals and dyads during social interaction. As virtual interactions become even more necessary, improving the design of videoconferencing technology will be crucial for supporting effective communication.

The hyper-brain neural couplings distinguishing high-creative group dynamics: an fNIRS hyperscanning study

This hyperscanning study aimed to identify a neural coupling profile that distinguishes high-creative group dynamics through functional near infrared spectroscopy. A total of 123 dyads completed one creativity task (alternative uses task, AUT) and contrast task (objective characteristics task). A K-means clustering analysis on AUT performance grouped 31/29 dyads into high/low-creative group, respectively. In comparison with the low-creative group, the high-creative group showed: (i) higher collective flexibility and delayed perspective-taking behaviors, but lower immediate perspective-taking behaviors; (ii) enhanced interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) between the left inferior frontal gyrus (lIFG) and right motor cortex, and nodal Eloc at the right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG); (iii) declined intrapersonal functional connectivity between the right angular gyrus (rAG) and rSTG, and IBS between the lIFG and rAG. The enhanced neural couplings positively correlated with group creative performance, whereas a reverse correlation pattern existed in the declined ones. A leave-one-out cross-validation analysis showed these neural couplings reliably predicted group creative performance within the sample. These indicate that high-creative group dynamics are characterized by utilizing partners' shared information when necessary (e.g. encountering idea exhaustion). A neural coupling profile consisting of sophisticated interplays between regions within frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes may underlie high-creative creative dynamics.

Letting leaders spontaneously emerge yields better creative outcomes and higher leader-follower interbrain synchrony during creative group communication

This study aimed to investigate how the ways leaders arise (appointed vs. emergent) affect the leader-follower interaction during creative group communication. Hyperscanning technique was adopted to reveal the underlying interpersonal neural correlates using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Participants were assigned into 3-person groups to complete a creative problem-solving task. These groups were randomly split into conditions of appointed (condition A) and emergent (condition E) leaders. Creative group outcomes were better in condition E, accompanied by more frequent perspective-taking behaviors between leaders and followers. The interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) increment for leader-follower pairs was significantly higher at the right angular gyrus (rAG), between the rAG and the right supramarginal gyrus (rSMG), and between the right middle temporal gyrus and the right motor cortex in condition E and positively correlated with perspective-taking behaviors between leaders and followers. The graph-based analysis showed higher nodal betweenness of the rAG and the rSMG in condition E. These results indicated the neural coupling of brain regions involved in mentalizing, semantic processing and motor imagery may underlie the dynamic information transmission between leaders and followers during creative group communication.

Effectiveness of the world anti-doping agency's e-learning programme for anti-doping education on knowledge of, explicit and implicit attitudes towards, and likelihood of doping among Chinese college athletes and non-athletes

Background

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the World Anti-Doping Agency's e-learning programme for anti-doping education on knowledge of, explicit and implicit attitudes towards, and likelihood of doping among Chinese college athletes and non-athletes.

Method

Thirty-two young adults (including 16 college athletes) were recruited to receive the Athlete Learning Program about Health and Anti-Doping (ALPHA) intervention (Zh-hans version). Another 32 young adults were recruited for no-treatment control purposes. Before and immediately after the intervention, the ALPHA test, performance enhancement attitude scale, doping likelihood scale, and brief implicit association test (BIAT) were performed. Cortical activity during the BIAT test was monitored using a functional near-infrared spectroscopy instrument.

Results

Significant intervention effects were observed for knowledge (p < 0.01, η² = 0.21) and explicit attitude (p < 0.05, η² = 0.12) but not for doping likelihood (p > 0.05; benefit situation: η² = 0.04; cost situation: η² = 0.02). Compared with the non-athletes, the college athletes reported lower doping likelihood scores in benefit situations (e.g., financial gain, p < 0.05, η² = 0.10). Regarding the BIAT task, the experimental effect was successfully induced by different semantic associations between the concepts and the attitude (doping + like vs. doping + dislike). The mean reaction times (p < 0.01, η² = 0.36) and error rate (p < 0.01, η² = 0.34) in the doping-like block were higher than those in the doping-dislike block. Moreover, oxygenated haemoglobin (oxy-Hb) in response to BIAT interference in the temporoparietal junction-related channels was increased during the post-intervention test (p < 0.05, η² varied from 0.09 to 0.16).

Conclusions

The findings suggest that the online anti-doping education programme is partially effective among Chinese college athletes and non-athletes. Furthermore, our findings reflect enhanced cognitive control after the education intervention to suppress a prepotent implicit attitude towards doping.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13011-022-00459-1.

Increased or decreased? Interpersonal neural synchronization in group creation

Group creation is the process by which group members collaborate to produce novel and useful ideas or products, including ideas generation and evaluation. However, the interpersonal neural mechanism of group creation during natural communication remains unclear. In this study, two groups of same-sex dyads with similar individual creativity collaborated to complete the Product Improvement Task (creative condition) and the Item Purchase Plan Task (control condition), respectively. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to record both members' neural activity in the left prefrontal (lPFC) and right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ) regions during the task. Considering that the role asymmetry of group members may have an impact on interpersonal neural patterns, we identified leaders and followers in the dyads based on participant performance. The results showed that leaders and followers in the creative condition had significantly lower interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) in the right superior temporal gyrus-left superior frontal gyrus, right supramarginal gyrus-left superior frontal gyrus, and right supramarginal gyrus-left middle frontal gyrus than in the control condition. Partial multivariate Granger causality analyses revealed the influence between dyads was bidirectional but was significantly stronger from the leaders to the followers than the other direction. In addition, in the creative task, the INS was significantly associated with novelty, appropriateness, and conflict of views. All these findings suggest that the ideas generation and ideas evaluation process in group creation have poor interpersonal neural activity coupling due to factors such as the difficulty of understanding novel ideas. However, performances may be improved when groups can better integrate views and reach collective understanding, intentions, and goals. Furthermore, we found that there are differences in the dynamics of INS in different brain regions. The INS related to the novelty of the group creation decreased in the early stages, while the INS related to the appropriateness decreased in the middle stages. Our findings reveal a unique interpersonal neural pattern of group creation processes in the context of natural communication.

Interpersonal coordination enhances brain-to-brain synchronization and influences responsibility attribution and reward allocation in social cooperation

Fair distribution of resources matters to both individual interests and group harmony during social cooperation. Different allocation rules, including equity- and equality-based rules, have been widely discussed in reward allocation research; however, it remains unclear whether and how individuals' cooperative manner, such as interpersonal coordination, influence their subsequent responsibility attribution and reward allocation. Here, 46 dyads conducted a time estimation task-either synergistically (the coordination group) or solely (the control group)-while their brain activities were measured using a functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning approach. Dyads in the coordination group showed higher behavioral synchrony and higher interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) in the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during the time estimation task than those in the control group. They also showed a more egalitarian tendency of responsibility attribution for the task outcome. More importantly, dyads in the coordination group who had higher IBS in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) were more inclined to make egalitarian reward allocations, and this effect was mediated by responsibility attribution. Our findings elucidate the influence of interpersonal coordination on reward allocation and the critical role of the prefrontal cortex in these processes.

Inter-Brain Synchrony Levels According to Task Execution Modes and Difficulty Levels: an fNIRS/GSR Study

Hyperscanning is a brain imaging technique that measures brain synchrony caused by social interactions. Recent research on hyperscanning has revealed substantial inter-brain synchrony (IBS), but little is known about the link between IBS and mental workload. To study this link, we conducted an experiment consisting of button-pressing tasks of three different difficulty levels for the cooperation and competition modes with 56 participants aged 23.7±3.8 years (mean±standard deviation). We attempted to observe IBS using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and galvanic skin response (GSR) to assess the activities of the human autonomic nervous system. We found that the IBS levels increased in a frequency band of 0.075-0.15 Hz, which was unrelated to the task repetition frequency in the cooperation mode according to the task difficulty level. Significant relative inter-brain synchrony (RIBS) increases were observed in three and 10 channels out of 15 for the hard tasks compared to the normal and easy tasks, respectively. We observed that the average GSR values increased with increasing task difficulty levels for the competition mode only. Thus, our results suggest that the IBS revealed by fNIRS and GSR is not related to the hemodynamic changes induced by mental workload, simple behavioral synchrony such as button-pressing timing, or autonomic nervous system activity. IBS is thus explicitly caused by social interactions such as cooperation.