It Takes Two: Interpersonal Neural Synchrony Is Increased after Musical Interaction

Abstract

Music’s deeply interpersonal nature suggests that music-derived neuroplasticity relates to interpersonal temporal dynamics, or synchrony. Interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) has been found to correlate with increased behavioral synchrony during social interactions and may represent mechanisms that support them. As social interactions often do not have clearly delineated boundaries, and many start and stop intermittently, we hypothesize that a neural signature of INS may be detectable following an interaction. The present study aimed to investigate this hypothesis using a pre-post paradigm, measuring interbrain phase coherence before and after a cooperative dyadic musical interaction. Ten dyads underwent synchronous electroencephalographic (EEG) recording during silent, non-interactive periods before and after a musical interaction in the form of a cooperative tapping game. Significant post-interaction increases in delta band INS were found in the post-condition and were positively correlated with the duration of the preceding interaction. These findings suggest a mechanism by which social interaction may be efficiently continued after interruption and hold the potential for measuring neuroplastic adaption in longitudinal studies. These findings also support the idea that INS during social interaction represents active mechanisms for maintaining synchrony rather than mere parallel processing of stimuli and motor activity.

Interpersonal neural synchrony and mental disorders: unlocking potential pathways for clinical interventions

“…However, the majority of studies have evaluated INS during the behavioral intervention or experimental condition. Only a very limited number of studies have explored the effects of behavioral interventions on INS measured shortly thereafter, indicating that these tasks may have carry-over effects ( Dikker et al, 2017 ; Nozawa et al, 2019 ; Khalil et al, 2022 ). While long-term effects on INS manipulations are rather unexplored, some of these techniques have been implemented in therapeutic approaches (e.g., in a dance/movement interventions based on interpersonal movement imitation and synchronization; Koehne et al, 2016 ) (for further information see Section 3.3).…”

Inter-brain plasticity as a biological mechanism of change in psychotherapy: A review and integrative model

“…Several methods have been demonstrated to increase inter-brain synchrony. For example, listening to music together was shown to increase inter-brain synchrony (Abrams et al, 2013;Khalil et al, 2022). Performing synchronized arm movements was shown to improve synchrony in a later teaching session, demonstrating that synchronizing can precede the interpersonal interaction (Nozawa et al, 2019).…”

The Co-Construction of an Elegant Ending—Polyphonic Musical Intervention in Palliative Care: A Case Study

“…In any case, for a greater linguistic and socio-musicological carefulness, it would be better to speak not of “music”, in an abstract way, but of “musical language”; since it implies a dialogic formulation, ruled by grammars and syntaxes not so far, yet unrelated to spoken language. Khalil, Musacchia, and Iversen investigate and study the Interpersonal Neural Synchrony (INS) which, indirectly supporting the VoxEchology method, appears to be “correlated with increased behavioral synchrony during social interactions’ and may represent mechanisms that support them” [ 8 ]. They live thanks to this extraordinary mechanism of synchrony, that could be defined as compositional-musical.…”