Cooperative Behavior Evokes Interbrain Synchrony in the Prefrontal and Temporoparietal Cortex: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of fNIRS Hyperscanning Studies

Artur Czeszumski*, Sophie Hsin Yi Liang, Suzanne Dikker, Peter König, Chin Pang Lee, Sander L. Koole, Brent Kelsen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Single-brain neuroimaging studies have shown that human cooperation is associated with neural activity in frontal and temporoparietal regions. However, it remains unclear whether single-brain studies are informative about cooperation in real life, where people interact dynamically. Such dynamic interactions have become the focus of interbrain studies. An advantageous technique in this regard is functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) because it is less susceptible to movement artifacts than more conventional techniques like electroencephalography (EEG) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We conducted a systematic review and the first quantitative meta-analysis of fNIRS hyperscanning of cooperation, based on thirteen studies with 890 human participants. Overall, the meta-analysis revealed evidence of statistically significant interbrain synchrony while people were cooperating, with large overall effect sizes in both frontal and temporoparietal areas. All thirteen studies observed significant interbrain synchrony in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), suggesting that this region is particularly relevant for cooperative behavior. The consistency in these findings is unlikely to be because of task-related activations, given that the relevant studies used diverse cooperation tasks. Together, the present findings support the importance of interbrain synchronization of frontal and temporoparietal regions in interpersonal cooperation. Moreover, the present article highlights the usefulness of meta-analyses as a tool for discerning patterns in interbrain dynamics.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberENEURO.0268-21.2022
Pages (from-to)1-9
Number of pages9
JournaleNeuro
Volume9
Issue number2
Early online date31 Mar 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
A.C. and P.K. were supported by The NBank Cooperation Project “Smart Fidelity Interaktionssystem zur Steigerung der Realitätsnähe bei der Durchführung handwerklicher Tätigkeitenin Virtual Reality(SmartFi),” the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)-funded Research Training Group Situated Cognition Grant GRK 2185/1, and the DFG Open Access Publishing Fund of Osnabrück University. S.D. was supported by the National Science Foundation Award #1661016. S.D. and S.L.K. were supported by the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research Award The Rhythm of Relating Grant #406.18.GO.024.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Society for Neuroscience. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • cooperation
  • fNIRS
  • hyperscanning
  • interbrain synchrony

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