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Shimon-Raz O, Yeshurun Y, Ulmer-Yaniv A, Levinkron A, Salomon R, Feldman R. Attachment Reminders Trigger Widespread Synchrony across Multiple Brains. J Neurosci 2023; 43:7213-7225. [PMID: 37813569 PMCID: PMC10601370 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0026-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2023] [Revised: 08/15/2023] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Infant stimuli elicit widespread neural and behavioral response in human adults, and such massive allocation of resources attests to the evolutionary significance of the primary attachment. Here, we examined whether attachment reminders also trigger cross-brain concordance and generate greater neural uniformity, as indicated by intersubject correlation. Human mothers were imaged twice in oxytocin/placebo administration design, and stimuli included four ecological videos of a standard unfamiliar mother and infant: two infant/mother alone (Alone) and two mother-infant dyadic contexts (Social). Theory-driven analysis measured cross-brain synchrony in preregistered nodes of the parental caregiving network (PCN), which integrates subcortical structures underpinning mammalian mothering with cortical areas implicated in simulation, mentalization, and emotion regulation, and data-driven analysis assessed brain-wide concordance using whole-brain parcellation. Results demonstrated widespread cross-brain synchrony in both the PCN and across the neuroaxis, from primary sensory/somatosensory areas, through insular-cingulate regions, to temporal and prefrontal cortices. The Social context yielded significantly more cross-brain concordance, with PCNs striatum, parahippocampal gyrus, superior temporal sulcus, ACC, and PFC displaying cross-brain synchrony only to mother-infant social cues. Moment-by-moment fluctuations in mother-infant social synchrony, ranging from episodes of low synchrony to tightly coordinated positive bouts, were tracked online by cross-brain concordance in the preregistered ACC. Findings indicate that social attachment stimuli, representing evolutionary-salient universal cues that require no verbal narrative, trigger substantial interbrain concordance and suggest that the mother-infant bond, an icon standing at the heart of human civilization, may function to glue brains into a unified experience and bind humans into social groups.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Infant stimuli elicit widespread neural response in human adults, attesting to their evolutionary significance, but do they also trigger cross-brain concordance and induce neural uniformity among perceivers? We measured cross-brain synchrony to ecological mother-infant videos. We used theory-driven analysis, measuring cross-brain concordance in the parenting network, and data-driven analysis, assessing brain-wide concordance using whole-brain parcellation. Attachment cues triggered widespread cross-brain concordance in both the parenting network and across the neuroaxis. Moment-by-moment fluctuations in behavioral synchrony were tracked online by cross-brain variability in ACC. Attachment reminders bind humans' brains into a unitary experience and stimuli characterized by social synchrony enhance neural similarity among participants, describing one mechanism by which attachment bonds provide the neural template for the consolidation of social groups.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yaara Yeshurun
- School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel
- Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel
| | | | - Ayelet Levinkron
- Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel
| | - Roy Salomon
- Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, 3498838, Israel
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Atilla F, Alimardani M, Kawamoto T, Hiraki K. Mother-child inter- brain synchrony during a mutual visual search task: A study of feedback valence and role. Soc Neurosci 2023; 18:232-244. [PMID: 37395457 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2023.2228545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 07/04/2023]
Abstract
Parent and child have been shown to synchronize their behaviors and physiology during social interactions. This synchrony is an important marker of their relationship quality and subsequently the child's social and emotional development. Therefore, understanding the factors that influence parent-child synchrony is an important undertaking. Using EEG hyperscanning, this study investigated brain-to-brain synchrony in mother-child dyads when they took turns performing a visual search task and received positive or negative feedback. In addition to the effect of feedback valence, we studied how their assigned role, i.e., observing or performing the task, influenced synchrony. Results revealed that mother-child synchrony was higher during positive feedback relative to negative feedback in delta and gamma frequency bands. Furthermore, a main effect was found for role in the alpha band with higher synchrony when a child observed their mother performing the task compared to when the mother observed their child. These findings reveal that a positive social context could lead a mother and child to synchronize more on a neural level, which could subsequently improve the quality of their relationship. This study provides insight into mechanisms that underlie mother-child brain-to-brain synchrony, and establishes a framework by which the impact of emotion and task demand on a dyad's synchrony can be investigated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fred Atilla
- Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands
| | - Maryam Alimardani
- Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands
| | | | - Kazuo Hiraki
- Department of General Systems Studies, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
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Chou WC, She HC, Jung TP. Human Brain Dynamics and Coordination Reflect the Task Difficulty of Optical Image Relational Reasoning. Int J Neural Syst 2023; 33:2350018. [PMID: 36842997 DOI: 10.1142/s0129065723500181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Despite advances in neuroscience, the mechanisms by which human brain resolve optical image formation through relational reasoning remain unclear, particularly its relationships with task difficulty. Therefore, this study explores the underlying brain dynamics involved in optical image formation tasks at various difficulty levels, including those with a single convex lens and a single mirror. Compared to single convex lens relational reasoning with high task difficulty, the single mirror relational reasoning exhibited significantly higher response accuracy and shorter latency. As compared to single mirror tasks, single convex tasks exhibited greater frontal midline theta augmentation and right parietal alpha suppression during phase I and earlier phase II, and augmentation of frontal midline theta, right parietal-occipital alpha, and left mu alpha suppression during late phase II. Moreover, the frontal midline theta power in late phase II predicts the likelihood of solving single convex tasks the best, while the parietal alpha power in phase I is most predictive. In addition, frontal midline theta power exhibited stronger synchronization with right parietal alpha, right occipital alpha, and mu alpha power when solving single convex tasks than single mirror tasks. In summary, having stronger brain dynamics and coordination is vital for achieving optical image formation with greater difficulty.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen-Chi Chou
- Department of Biology, National Changhua, University of Education, Taiwan, ROC
| | - Hsiao-Ching She
- Institute of Education, National Yang Ming, Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, ROC
| | - Tzyy-Ping Jung
- Institute of Engineering in Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA
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Azhari A, Bizzego A, Esposito G. Parent-child dyads with greater parenting stress exhibit less synchrony in posterior areas and more synchrony in frontal areas of the prefrontal cortex during shared play. Soc Neurosci 2023; 17:520-531. [PMID: 36576051 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2022.2162118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Parent-child dyads who are mutually attuned to each other during social interactions display interpersonal synchrony that can be observed behaviorally and through the temporal coordination of brain signals called interbrain synchrony. Parenting stress undermines the quality of parent-child interactions. However, no study has examined synchrony in relation to parenting stress during everyday shared play. The present fNIRS study examined the association between parenting stress and interbrain synchrony in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of 31 mother-child and 29 father-child dyads while they engaged in shared play for 10 min. Shared play was micro-analytically coded into joint and non-joint segments. Interbrain synchrony was computed using cross-correlations over 15-, 20-, 25-, 30- and 35-s fixed-length windows. Findings showed that stressed dyads exhibited less synchrony in the posterior right cluster of the PFC during joint segments of play, and, contrary to expectations, stressed dyads also showed greater synchrony in the frontal left cluster. These findings suggest that dyads with more parenting stress experienced less similarities in brain areas involved in emotional processing and regulation, whilst simultaneously requiring greater neural entrainment in brain areas that support task management and social-behavioral organization in order to sustain prolonged periods of joint interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atiqah Azhari
- Psychology Programme, School of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Andrea Bizzego
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Gianluca Esposito
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
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Morales JM, Ruiz-Rabelo JF, Diaz-Piedra C, Di Stasi LL. Detecting Mental Workload in Surgical Teams Using a Wearable Single-Channel Electroencephalographic Device. J Surg Educ 2019; 76:1107-1115. [PMID: 30691989 DOI: 10.1016/j.jsurg.2019.01.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2018] [Revised: 12/03/2018] [Accepted: 01/07/2019] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To assess the sensitivity of an electroencephalographic (EEG)-based index, the prefrontal beta power, to quantify the mental workload in surgeons in real scenarios. Such EEG-based index might offer unique and unbiased measures of overload, a crucial factor when designing learning and training surgical programs. DESIGN The experiment followed a 2 × 2 × 2 within subjects design with 3 factors: (1) Surgical Role during the surgery (primary surgeon vs. assistant surgeon), (2) the Surgical Procedure (laparo-endoscopic single-site [LESS] surgery vs. multiport laparoscopic surgery [MPS]), and (3) the Suturing Techniques (interrupted vs. continuous suture). SETTING The study was carried out at the Advanced Multi-Purpose Simulation and Technological Innovation Complex situated at IAVANTE (Granada, Spain). METHODS Four surgical teams (primary surgeon and assistant surgeon, experts in MPS) performed 8 surgical exercises on porcine models, under different task complexities. They performed 2 suturing techniques (continuous and interrupted), employing a low complex procedure (MPS) and a high complex procedure (LESS). Surgeons acted as the primary surgeon during half of the exercises, and, as the assistant surgeon, during the rest of them. Simultaneously, we monitored EEG prefrontal EEG beta power spectra of both surgeons, using 2 synchronized wearable EEG devices. We also collected performance and subjective data. RESULTS Surgical complexity modulated prefrontal beta power. LESS surgery caused significant higher prefrontal beta power for both suturing techniques for both surgical roles which indicates higher demands than MPS. Perceived task complexity, overall surgical evaluation, and laparoscopic execution time confirmed EEG-based results. Finally, subjective ratings of surgical complexity differentiated between surgical roles within the same exercise, even when prefrontal beta power did not. CONCLUSIONS To detect mental overload when surgeons are engaged with complex surgeries, real or simulated, is still guesswork. EEG-based indices have great potential as objective and nonintrusive measures to assess mental overload in surgeons. Furthermore, EEG-based indices might play a relevant role in monitoring surgeons and residents' cognitive state during their training.
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Affiliation(s)
- José M Morales
- Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain; Department of Computer Architecture and Technology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Juan F Ruiz-Rabelo
- Department of General Surgery, Reina Sofia University Hospital, Cordoba, Spain
| | - Carolina Diaz-Piedra
- Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain; College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona.
| | - Leandro L Di Stasi
- Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain; Joint Center University of Granada-Spanish Army Training and Doctrine Command, Spain
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Mu Y, Han S, Gelfand MJ. The role of gamma inter brain synchrony in social coordination when humans face territorial threats. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2017; 12:1614-1623. [PMID: 28985437 PMCID: PMC5647809 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsx093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2016] [Revised: 06/29/2017] [Accepted: 07/20/2017] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Throughout history and into the modern era, human groups have been continually subjected to a wide range of societal threats, from natural disasters to pandemics to terrorism. Yet despite this fundamental aspect of human existence, there has been little research on how societal threat affects social coordination at both the neural and the behavioral level. Here, we show for the first time that individuals are better able to coordinate under high societal threat as compared to low or no threat (Experiment 1). Using a method of hyperscanning electroencephalography (EEG), which simultaneously measures brain activity among interacting subjects, we further illustrate that interbrain synchrony of gamma band oscillations is enhanced when people are under high threat, and increased gamma interbrain synchrony is associated with lower dyadic interpersonal time lag (i.e. higher coordination) (Experiment 2). To our knowledge, the current work provides some of the first empirical evidence that gamma interbrain synchrony is associated with social coordination when humans are under threat.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan Mu
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Shihui Han
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100080, China
| | - Michele J Gelfand
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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Dikker S, Wan L, Davidesco I, Kaggen L, Oostrik M, McClintock J, Rowland J, Michalareas G, Van Bavel JJ, Ding M, Poeppel D. Brain-to- Brain Synchrony Tracks Real-World Dynamic Group Interactions in the Classroom. Curr Biol 2017; 27:1375-1380. [PMID: 28457867 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.04.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 276] [Impact Index Per Article: 39.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2016] [Revised: 02/27/2017] [Accepted: 04/04/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
The human brain has evolved for group living [1]. Yet we know so little about how it supports dynamic group interactions that the study of real-world social exchanges has been dubbed the "dark matter of social neuroscience" [2]. Recently, various studies have begun to approach this question by comparing brain responses of multiple individuals during a variety of (semi-naturalistic) tasks [3-15]. These experiments reveal how stimulus properties [13], individual differences [14], and contextual factors [15] may underpin similarities and differences in neural activity across people. However, most studies to date suffer from various limitations: they often lack direct face-to-face interaction between participants, are typically limited to dyads, do not investigate social dynamics across time, and, crucially, they rarely study social behavior under naturalistic circumstances. Here we extend such experimentation drastically, beyond dyads and beyond laboratory walls, to identify neural markers of group engagement during dynamic real-world group interactions. We used portable electroencephalogram (EEG) to simultaneously record brain activity from a class of 12 high school students over the course of a semester (11 classes) during regular classroom activities (Figures 1A-1C; Supplemental Experimental Procedures, section S1). A novel analysis technique to assess group-based neural coherence demonstrates that the extent to which brain activity is synchronized across students predicts both student class engagement and social dynamics. This suggests that brain-to-brain synchrony is a possible neural marker for dynamic social interactions, likely driven by shared attention mechanisms. This study validates a promising new method to investigate the neuroscience of group interactions in ecologically natural settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suzanne Dikker
- Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA; Department of Language and Communication, Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, Utrecht University, Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, the Netherlands.
| | - Lu Wan
- J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, 1275 Center Drive, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
| | - Ido Davidesco
- Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Lisa Kaggen
- Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | | | | | - Jess Rowland
- Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Georgios Michalareas
- Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Grüneburgweg 14, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Jay J Van Bavel
- Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Mingzhou Ding
- J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, 1275 Center Drive, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
| | - David Poeppel
- Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA; Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Grüneburgweg 14, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
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