Affective Synchrony and Autonomic Coupling during Cooperation: A Hyperscanning Study

Abstract

Previous research highlighted that during social interactions people shape each other's emotional states by resonance mechanisms and synchronized autonomic patterns. Starting from the idea that joint actions create shared emotional experiences, in the present study a social bond was experimentally induced by making subjects cooperate with each other. Participants' autonomic system activity (electrodermal: skin conductance level and response: SCL, SCR; cardiovascular indices: heart rate: HR) was continuously monitored during an attentional couple game. The cooperative motivation was induced by presenting feedback which reinforced the positive outcomes of the intersubjective exchange. 24 participants coupled in 12 dyads were recruited. Intrasubject analyses revealed higher HR in the first part of the task, connoted by increased cognitive demand and arousing social dynamic, while intersubject analysis showed increased synchrony in electrodermal activity after the feedback. Such results encourage the use of hyperscanning techniques to assess emotional coupling in ecological and real-time paradigms.

Who's boss? Physiological measures during performance assessment

“…However, previous work mainly focused on neuroimaging and the brain networks related to such dynamics (Balconi, Crivelli, & Vanutelli, ; Balconi, Gatti, & Vanutelli, ; Balconi, Pezard, Nandrino, & Vanutelli, ; Balconi, Vanutelli, & Gatti, ), whereas interpersonal components involving emotional responses could benefit also from other techniques about peripheral activity recording such as electrodermal activity (EDA) and cardiovascular activity recording (HR). These methods, in fact, can easily detect some reactions related to specific interpersonal processes such as empathy (Levenson & Ruef, ) and affective behaviors (Adolphs, ; Levenson & Gottman, ; Vanutelli, Gatti, Angioletti, & Balconi, ). For example, differential emotional responses could be detected (Levenson, ), as well as the way people are connected each other (Chaspari et al, ; Vanutelli et al, ).…”

“…These methods, in fact, can easily detect some reactions related to specific interpersonal processes such as empathy (Levenson & Ruef, 1992) and affective behaviors (Adolphs, 2003;Levenson & Gottman, 1983;Vanutelli, Gatti, Angioletti, & Balconi, 2017). For example, differential emotional responses could be detected (Levenson, 1992), as well as the way people are connected each other (Chaspari et al, 2015;Vanutelli et al, 2017).…”

Cooperative leadership in hyperscanning. Brain and body synchrony during manager-employee interactions

“…At the same time, a positive mutual ongoing variation of autonomic responses (both SCL and SCR) was found within partecipative dyads. Since the presence of a co-evolution of electrodermal responses has been associated to the quality of social interactions (Guastello, Pincus, & Gunderson, 2006;Vanutelli et al, 2017), both the central and the peripheral coherence seem to contribute to underline the presence of a joint effect. This result is of particular interest if we consider the mutual influence between mental processes and the physiological state of the body.…”

“…In addition to neural markers, other emotional and cognitive cues could be acquired from the peripheral system and autonomic body activity, and specifically from electrodermal (EDA) and cardiovascular activity recording (Heart Rate: HR). These indices can easily measure some reactions during interpersonal processes, like empathy (Levenson & Ruef, 1992) and affective behaviors (Adolphs, 2003;Levenson & Gottman, 1983;Vanutelli, Gatti, Angioletti, & Balconi, 2017). EDA is composed by SCL and SCR.…”

Physiological synchrony promotes cooperative success in real-life interactions

“…It has been proposed that the function of this alignment is to infer the other person's emotions, to empathize, and to provide subsequent consolation, help, or other prosocial behavior (24). Despite the clear predictions regarding the function of synchrony, studies have thus far only investigated the benefits of synchrony in artificial settings with either participants interacting with virtual characters on a computer screen (25), or two people interacting in cooperative compared to 5 competitive contexts (26)(27)(28). Thus far, no research has investigated direct links between synchrony and subsequent cooperative decisions.…”