{"title":"Measuring information alignment in hyperscanning research with representational analyses: moving beyond interbrain synchrony","authors":"Manuel Varlet, Tijl Grootswagers","doi":"10.3389/fnhum.2024.1385624","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Hyperscanning, which enables the recording of brain activity from multiple individuals simultaneously, has been increasingly used to investigate the neuropsychological processes underpinning social interaction. Previous hyperscanning research has primarily focused on interbrain synchrony, demonstrating an enhanced alignment of brain waves across individuals during social interaction. However, using EEG hyperscanning simulations, we here show that interbrain synchrony has low sensitivity to information alignment across people. Surprisingly, interbrain synchrony remains largely unchanged despite manipulating whether two individuals are seeing same or different things at the same time. Furthermore, we show that hyperscanning recordings do contain indices of interpersonal information alignment and that they can be captured using representational analyses. These findings highlight major limitations of current hyperscanning research and offer a promising alternative for investigating interactive minds.","PeriodicalId":12536,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Human Neuroscience","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2024.1385624","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"NEUROSCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Hyperscanning, which enables the recording of brain activity from multiple individuals simultaneously, has been increasingly used to investigate the neuropsychological processes underpinning social interaction. Previous hyperscanning research has primarily focused on interbrain synchrony, demonstrating an enhanced alignment of brain waves across individuals during social interaction. However, using EEG hyperscanning simulations, we here show that interbrain synchrony has low sensitivity to information alignment across people. Surprisingly, interbrain synchrony remains largely unchanged despite manipulating whether two individuals are seeing same or different things at the same time. Furthermore, we show that hyperscanning recordings do contain indices of interpersonal information alignment and that they can be captured using representational analyses. These findings highlight major limitations of current hyperscanning research and offer a promising alternative for investigating interactive minds.
期刊介绍:
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience is a first-tier electronic journal devoted to understanding the brain mechanisms supporting cognitive and social behavior in humans, and how these mechanisms might be altered in disease states. The last 25 years have seen an explosive growth in both the methods and the theoretical constructs available to study the human brain. Advances in electrophysiological, neuroimaging, neuropsychological, psychophysical, neuropharmacological and computational approaches have provided key insights into the mechanisms of a broad range of human behaviors in both health and disease. Work in human neuroscience ranges from the cognitive domain, including areas such as memory, attention, language and perception to the social domain, with this last subject addressing topics, such as interpersonal interactions, social discourse and emotional regulation. How these processes unfold during development, mature in adulthood and often decline in aging, and how they are altered in a host of developmental, neurological and psychiatric disorders, has become increasingly amenable to human neuroscience research approaches. Work in human neuroscience has influenced many areas of inquiry ranging from social and cognitive psychology to economics, law and public policy. Accordingly, our journal will provide a forum for human research spanning all areas of human cognitive, social, developmental and translational neuroscience using any research approach.