You are in sync with me: Neural correlates of interpersonal synchrony with a partner

Abstract

Interpersonal synchrony is characterized by a temporary alignment of periodic behaviors with another person. This process requires that at least one of the two individuals monitors and adjusts his/her movements to maintain alignment with the other individual (the referent). Interestingly, recent research on interpersonal synchrony has found that people who are motivated to befriend an unfamiliar social referent tend to automatically synchronize with their social referents, raising the possibility that synchrony may be employed as an affiliation tool. It is unknown, however, whether the opposite is true; that is, whether the person serving as the referent of interpersonal synchrony perceives synchrony with his/her partner or experiences affiliative feelings toward the partner. To address this question, we performed a series of studies on interpersonal synchrony with a total of 100 participants. In all studies, participants served as the referent with no requirement to monitor or align their behavior with their partners. Unbeknown to the participants, the timings of their "partner's" movements were actually determined by a computer program based on the participant's (i.e., referent's) behavior. Overall, our behavioral results showed that the referent of a synchrony task expressed greater perceived synchrony and greater social affiliation toward a synchronous partner (i.e., one displaying low mean asynchrony and/or a narrow asynchrony range) than with an asynchronous partner (i.e., one displaying high mean asynchrony and/or high asynchrony range). Our neuroimaging study extended these results by demonstrating involvement of brain areas implicated in social cognition, embodied cognition, self-other expansion, and action observation as correlates of interpersonal synchrony (vs. asynchrony). These findings have practical implications for social interaction and theoretical implications for understanding interpersonal synchrony and social coordination.

Cognitive mechanisms for responding to mimicry from others

“…There was an increase in activity in the left inferior parietal cortex when participants were imitated by the experimenter as well as when they did the imitating. Similar activity was found in recent fMRI study of participants who experienced another person not in their view (actually a computer algorithm) synchronising with them on a computer screen while the participant simply tapped a button (Cacioppo et al, 2014). Compared to experiencing asynchrony, while participants experienced synchrony they showed greater activity in the left inferior parietal cortex.…”

“…In particular, synchronised movement leads to increased liking (Hove & Risen, 2009;Lynden K. Miles, Nind, & Macrae, 2009) and prosocial behaviour (Reddish, Fischer, & Bulbulia, 2013;Piercarlo Valdesolo, Ouyang, & DeSteno, 2010;Wiltermuth & Heath, 2009). Synchrony and mimicry also appear to activate similar reward regions in the brain (Cacioppo et al, 2014;Kokal et al, 2011). Since synchronised movements are characterised by temporal contingency rather than similarity (Catmur & Heyes, 2013), this suggests that contingency may explain these effects of mimicry.…”

“…Only one study has measured a mimickee's neural response to mimicry of their postures and body movements (Hogeveen, Chartrand, & Obhi, 2014). However, several other research groups have measured neural activation in response to closely related experiences, including being overtly imitated by a live experimenter or a video stimulus Decety, Chaminade, Grèzes, & Meltzoff, 2002;Guionnet et al, 2012), passively observing a mimicry interaction from the perspective of the mimickee (Kühn et al, 2010), and interactional synchrony driven by another person (Cacioppo et al, 2014;Kokal, Engel, Kirschner, & Keysers, 2011). Here we consider the available data from these different paradigms in order to infer possible neural systems involved in responding to mimicry.…”

Fostering Social Cognition through an Imitation- and Synchronization-Based Dance/Movement Intervention in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Controlled Proof-of-Concept Study

“…It has been shown that synchronizing movements with those of another person during an interaction is associated with greater rapport, feelings of closeness and pro-social behavior [18,19,20,21,22,23]. Similarly, imitation of postures, facial expressions, and other behaviors entail positive social consequences including liking, emotion recognition, generosity, and reduced racial prejudice [24,25,26,27].…”

Embodied Cognition and the Direct Induction of Affect as a Compliment to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

“…The therapist encourages the client along the corridor to embody each emotion and then to feel for a movement solution that will help the client get to their embodied future, picking up hints of the client’s nonverbal displays. In emotional mastery of our model, synchronization of the therapist’s movements with those of the client during a guided interaction in the values corridor is hypothesized to lead to prosocial consequences such as greater rapport, feelings of closeness between the client and the therapist [128,129]. …”