The integration of social and neural synchrony: a case for ecologically valid research using MEG neuroimaging

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>The recent decade has seen a shift from artificial and environmentally deprived experiments in neuroscience to real-life studies on multiple brains in interaction, coordination and synchrony. In these new interpersonal synchrony experiments, there has been a growing trend to employ naturalistic social interactions to evaluate mechanisms underlying synchronous neuronal communication. Here, we emphasize the importance of integrating the assessment of neural synchrony with measurement of nonverbal behavioral synchrony as expressed in various social contexts: relaxed social interactions, planning a joint pleasurable activity, conflict discussion, invocation of trauma, or support giving and assess the integration of neural and behavioral synchrony across developmental stages and psychopathological conditions. We also showcase the advantages of magnetoencephalography neuroimaging as a promising tool for studying interactive neural synchrony and consider the challenge of ecological validity at the expense of experimental rigor. We review recent evidence of rhythmic information flow between brains in interaction and conclude with addressing state-of-the-art developments that may contribute to advance research on brain-to-brain coordination to the next level.</jats:p>

Social Behavior as a Transdiagnostic Marker of Resilience

“…It mediated the effects of war exposure on children's executive functions at the transition to adolescence (S. Motsan, K. Yirmiya & R. Feldman, unpublished manuscript) and buffered the effects of trauma on disruptions to default mode network connectivity in adolescence (Zeev-Wolf et al 2019). Reciprocity experienced across childhood shaped maturation of the social brain, including the brain basis of empathy in children (Levy et al 2019a) and mothers (Levy et al 2019b) in response to others' physical pain and emotional distress and the degree of impairment to default mode network connectivity in mothers and children (Zeev-Wolf et al 2019).…”

“…Sensitivity according to the CIB is a multidimensional construct tapping the degree to which the parent adapts to the child's arousal dynamics and communicative signals, facilitates social competence and creativity, resourcefully uses opportunities for expansion, and creates a supportive presence for safety and growth. In countless studies and meta-analyses (De Wolff & van Ijzendoorn 1997), parent sensitivity has been shown to influence child outcomes, including secure attachment, social skills, emotion regulation, empathy, better physiological stress response, maturation of the oxytocin and immune systems, physical and mental health, and brain development (Levy et al 2019a;Pratt et al 2015Pratt et al , 2018Pratt et al , 2019Ulmer-Yaniv et al 2018a,b).…”

Graded Empathy: A Neuro-Phenomenological Hypothesis

“…This is not surprising because in comparison to simplified and controlled experiments, experiments that involve naturalistic aspects of social life engage qualitatively different patterns of neural activity (50). Hence, to capture non-dualistic neural mechanisms, instead of relying on anatomical segregation, more advanced methods (e.g., multi-rhythmic temporal representations in MEG) should be employed (51,52).…”

Current view on the dyadic synchrony mechanism

“…С одной стороны, это может быть единовременная запись участников в процессе максимально естественного взаимодействия, а с другой -последовательная запись, при которой сначала одного субъекта записывают на видеозапись и регистрируют его показатели, после чего запись предъявляют другому человеку и замеряют показатели второго участника в ответ на предъявленный видеоматериал. Такая синхронизация называется последовательной, потому что, в отличие от живого контакта, происходит односторонняя со-настройка регистрируемых показателей с человеком на видеозаписи [28].…”