Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Casto, Kathleen

Area of Concentration

Biopsychology

Abstract

Cooperation is necessary to succeed in numerous settings, including sports, business, and the creative arts. Essential to cooperation between two people is effectively coordinating motor movements. However, there is still a lack of understanding of the neural activation patterns of interpersonal coordination and its connection to task performance outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the neural foundation of interpersonal coordinated movement between individuals and associated interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning techniques to measure the level of brain activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the right temporal parietal junction (rTPJ) region. Participants (N = 38) performed an ordered tracing task in two different social conditions, alone and coordinated with a partner, under two cognitive taxation levels, which were relatively easy and relatively complex. When participants performed the task together, they took turns being designated as the leader or follower. Partner performance was operationalized as the difference between partners in the time to complete each tracing task when in the coordinated condition. Results showed that there was significantly less activation in select regions of the PFC and more activation in the rTPJ during the coordinated condition compared to the alone condition, as hypothesized. Further, in the coordinated condition, there was more activation in the PFC during the more cognitively taxing condition compared to the easier condition. However, there was only weak evidence for a slight positive correlation between neural activity in the rTPJ and partner task performance. Findings from this study reveal insights about the nature of brain activity during coordination and the potential for human inter-brain synchrony, which could have practical implications for social neuroscience and other industries, including healthcare, sports, and mental health.

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