Interpersonal brain synchronization in the right temporo-parietal junction during face-to-face economic exchange

In daily life, interpersonal interactions are influenced by uncertainty about other people's intentions. Face-to-face (FF) interaction reduces such uncertainty by providing external visible cues such as facial expression or body gestures and facilitates shared intentionality to promote belief o...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social cognitive and affective neuroscience 2016-01, Vol.11 (1), p.23-32
Main Authors: Tang, Honghong, Mai, Xiaoqin, Wang, Shun, Zhu, Chaozhe, Krueger, Frank, Liu, Chao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brain Mapping - methods
Cooperative Behavior
Cortical Synchronization - physiology
Culture
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Economics, Behavioral
Facial Expression
Female
Functional Neuroimaging
Gestures
Humans
Intention
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Original
Parietal Lobe - physiology
Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared
Temporal Lobe - physiology
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In daily life, interpersonal interactions are influenced by uncertainty about other people's intentions. Face-to-face (FF) interaction reduces such uncertainty by providing external visible cues such as facial expression or body gestures and facilitates shared intentionality to promote belief of cooperative decisions and actual cooperative behaviors in interaction. However, so far little is known about interpersonal brain synchronization between two people engaged in naturally occurring FF interactions. In this study, we combined an adapted ultimatum game with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning to investigate how FF interaction impacts interpersonal brain synchronization during economic exchange. Pairs of strangers interacted repeatedly either FF or face-blocked (FB), while their activation was simultaneously measured in the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ) and the control region, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC). Behaviorally, FF interactions increased shared intentionality between strangers, leading more positive belief of cooperative decisions and more actual gains in the game. FNIRS results indicated increased interpersonal brain synchronizations during FF interactions in rTPJ (but not in rDLPFC) with greater shared intentionality between partners. These results highlighted the importance of rTPJ in collaborative social interactions during FF economic exchange and warrant future research that combines FF interactions with fNIRS hyperscanning to study social brain disorders such as autism.
ISSN:1749-5016
1749-5024
DOI:10.1093/scan/nsv092