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Abstract Social interactive learning denotes the ability to acquire new information from a conspecific—a prerequisite for cultural evolution and survival. As inspired by recent neurophysiological research, here we tested whether social interactive learning can be augmented by exogenously synchronizing oscillatory brain activity across an instructor and a learner engaged in a naturalistic song-learning task. We used a dual brain stimulation protocol entailing the trans-cranial delivery of synchronized electric currents in two individuals simultaneously. When we stimulated inferior frontal brain regions, with 6 Hz alternating currents being in-phase between the instructor and the learner, the dyad exhibited spontaneous and synchronized body movement. Remarkably, this stimulation also led to enhanced learning performance. These effects were both phase- and frequency-specific: 6 Hz anti-phase stimulation or 10 Hz in-phase stimulation, did not yield comparable results. Furthermore, a mediation analysis disclosed that interpersonal movement synchrony acted as a partial mediator of the effect of dual brain stimulation on learning performance, i.e. possibly facilitating the effect of dual brain stimulation on learning. Our results provide a causal demonstration that inter-brain synchronization is a sufficient condition to improve real-time information transfer between pairs of individuals.

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Musical performance anxiety (MPA) occurs throughout musicians’ careers. The existing literature on coping with MPA is underdeveloped in its understanding of how college musicians develop their own coping strategies. This article explores the ways in which MPA is self-managed by college musicians, drawing on qualitative data from the local context of Taiwan. A ‘performance diary’ for managing MPA was prepared and semi-structured interviews were carried out with 53 undergraduate students (from Year 1 to Year 4) from a university’s music department. The findings show that college musicians have developed at least nine self-management strategies, which they implement throughout a specific timeline leading up to a performance, from 4 weeks before right up to the performance (concert, exam and recital) itself. These strategies are products of musicians’ self-regulated learning process of developing their own expertise and building up their self-efficacy. The findings also reveal that providing information about psychological strategies in a performance diary could help musicians to become aware of MPA and develop their metacognition of coping strategies. Highlighting the importance of the specific time periods, types of performance and performance environments, this article has implications for college musicians, teachers and institutions that are looking to develop MPA-management strategies.

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