EEG correlates of social interaction at distance

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Abstract

This study investigated EEG correlates of social interaction at distance between twenty-five pairs of participants who were not connected by any traditional channels of communication.

Each session involved the application of 128 stimulations separated by intervals of random duration ranging from 4 to 6 seconds. One of the pair received a one-second stimulation from a light signal produced by an arrangement of red LEDs, and a simultaneous 500 Hz sinusoidal audio signal of the same length. The other member of the pair sat in an isolated sound-proof room, such that any sensory interaction between the pair was impossible.

An analysis of the Event-Related Potentials associated with sensory stimulation using traditional averaging methods showed a distinct peak at approximately 300 ms, but only in the EEG activity of subjects who were directly stimulated. However, when a new algorithm was applied to the EEG activity based on the correlation between signals from all active electrodes, a weak but robust response was also detected in the EEG activity of the passive member of the pair, particularly within 9 – 10 Hz in the Alpha range. Using the Bootstrap method and the Monte Carlo emulation, this signal was found to be statistically significant.

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Most cited references 8

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Tania Singer, Claus Lamm (2009)

The phenomenon of empathy entails the ability to share the affective experiences of others. In recent years social neuroscience made considerable progress in revealing the mechanisms that enable a person to feel what another is feeling. The present review provides an in-depth and critical discussion of these findings. Consistent evidence shows that sharing the emotions of others is associated with activation in neural structures that are also active during the first-hand experience of that emotion. Part of the neural activation shared between self- and other-related experiences seems to be rather automatically activated. However, recent studies also show that empathy is a highly flexible phenomenon, and that vicarious responses are malleable with respect to a number of factors--such as contextual appraisal, the interpersonal relationship between empathizer and other, or the perspective adopted during observation of the other. Future investigations are needed to provide more detailed insights into these factors and their neural underpinnings. Questions such as whether individual differences in empathy can be explained by stable personality traits, whether we can train ourselves to be more empathic, and how empathy relates to prosocial behavior are of utmost relevance for both science and society.

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Prediction in joint action: what, when, and where.

Natalie Sebanz, Guenther Knoblich (2009)

Drawing on recent findings in the cognitive and neurosciences, this article discusses how people manage to predict each other's actions, which is fundamental for joint action. We explore how a common coding of perceived and performed actions may allow actors to predict the what, when, and where of others' actions. The "what" aspect refers to predictions about the kind of action the other will perform and to the intention that drives the action. The "when" aspect is critical for all joint actions requiring close temporal coordination. The "where" aspect is important for the online coordination of actions because actors need to effectively distribute a common space. We argue that although common coding of perceived and performed actions alone is not sufficient to enable one to engage in joint action, it provides a representational platform for integrating the actions of self and other. The final part of the paper considers links between lower-level processes like action simulation and higher-level processes like verbal communication and mental state attribution that have previously been at the focus of joint action research. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

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Kelly Jantzen, Julien Lagarde, J. A. Scott Kelso … (2007)

Spontaneous social coordination has been extensively described in natural settings but so far no controlled methodological approaches have been employed that systematically advance investigations into the possible self-organized nature of bond formation and dissolution between humans. We hypothesized that, under certain contexts, spontaneous synchrony-a well-described phenomenon in biological and physical settings-could emerge spontaneously between humans as a result of information exchange. Here, a new way to quantify interpersonal interactions in real time is proposed. In a simple experimental paradigm, pairs of participants facing each other were required to actively produce actions, while provided (or not) with the vision of similar actions being performed by someone else. New indices of interpersonal coordination, inspired by the theoretical framework of coordination dynamics (based on relative phase and frequency overlap between movements of individuals forming a pair) were developed and used. Results revealed that spontaneous phase synchrony (i.e., unintentional in-phase coordinated behavior) between two people emerges as soon as they exchange visual information, even if they are not explicitly instructed to coordinate with each other. Using the same tools, we also quantified the degree to which the behavior of each individual remained influenced by the social encounter even after information exchange had been removed, apparently a kind of social memory.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): F1000Res

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): F1000Res

Journal ID (pmc): F1000Research

Title: F1000Research

Publisher: F1000Research (London, UK )

ISSN (Electronic): 2046-1402

Publication date (Electronic): 14 January 2016

Publication date Collection: 2015

Volume: 4

Electronic Location Identifier: 457

Affiliations

[1 ]Evanlab, Firenze, 50023, Italy

[2 ]Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università di Padova, Padova, 35131, Italy

[1 ]Research Section of Applied Consciousness Sciences, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Medical Center, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany