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Title: | Social synchronization of brain activity increases during eye-contact |
Authors: | Di Bernardi Luft, C Zioga, I Giannopoulos, A Di Bona, G Binetti, N Civilini, A Latora, V Mareschal, I |
Keywords: | cognitive neuroscience;cooperation;social neuroscience |
Issue Date: | 4-May-2022 |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Citation: | Luft, C.D.B. et al. (2022) 'Social synchronization of brain activity increases during eye-contact' in Communications Biology, 5 (1), 412, pp. 1 - 15. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03352-6. |
Abstract: | Copyright © The Author(s) 2022. Humans make eye-contact to extract information about other people’s mental states, recruiting dedicated brain networks that process information about the self and others. Recent studies show that eye-contact increases the synchronization between two brains but do not consider its effects on activity within single brains. Here we investigate how eye-contact affects the frequency and direction of the synchronization within and between two brains and the corresponding network characteristics. We also evaluate the functional relevance of eye-contact networks by comparing inter- and intra-brain networks of friends vs. strangers and the direction of synchronization between leaders and followers. We show that eye-contact increases higher inter- and intra-brain synchronization in the gamma frequency band. Network analysis reveals that some brain areas serve as hubs linking within- and between-brain networks. During eye-contact, friends show higher inter-brain synchronization than strangers. Dyads with clear leader/follower roles demonstrate higher synchronization from leader to follower in the alpha frequency band. Importantly, eye-contact affects synchronization between brains more than within brains, demonstrating that eye-contact is an inherently social signal. Future work should elucidate the causal mechanisms behind eye-contact induced synchronization. |
URI: | https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/25575 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03352-6 |
Other Identifiers: | ORCID iD: Caroline Di Bernardi Luft https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3293-3898 412 |
Appears in Collections: | Dept of Life Sciences Research Papers |
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