The two-brain approach: how can mutually interacting brains teach us something about social interaction?
Open accessAbstract
Measuring brain activity simultaneously from two people interacting is intuitively appealing if one is interested in putative neural markers of social interaction. However, given the complex nature of interactions, it has proven difficult to carry out two-person brain imaging experiments in a methodologically feasible and conceptually relevant way. Only a small number of recent studies have put this into practice, using fMRI, EEG, or NIRS. Here, we review two main two-brain methodological approaches, each with two conceptual strategies. The first group has employed two-brain fMRI recordings, studying (1) turn-based interactions on the order of seconds, or (2) pseudo-interactive scenarios, where only one person is scanned at a time, investigating the flow of information between brains. The second group of studies has recorded dual EEG/NIRS from two people interacting, in (1) face-to-face turn-based interactions, investigating functional connectivity between theory-of-mind regions of interacting partners, or in (2) continuous mutual interactions on millisecond timescales, to measure coupling between the activity in one person's brain and the activity in the other's brain. We discuss the questions these approaches have addressed, and consider scenarios when simultaneous two-brain recordings are needed. Furthermore, we suggest that (1) quantification of inter-personal neural effects via measures of emergence, and (2) multivariate decoding models that generalize source-specific features of interaction, may provide novel tools to study brains in interaction. This may allow for a better understanding of social cognition as both representation and participation.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Joint activities lead to interpersonal synchronization of neural activations.
“Across studies, a consistent finding is that joint activities lead to interpersonal synchronization of neural activations.”
From Synchrony in Psychotherapy: A Review and an Integrative Framework for the Therapeutic Alliance (2016) · cites this paper as Konvalinka and Roepstorff, 2012
Adult research on motor synchrony has so far made little contact with developmental research on synchrony in facial affect.
“For instance, adult research on motor synchrony (Repp and Su, 2013) has so far made little contact with developmental research on synchrony in facial affect (Feldman, 2007), and both lines of research have just started to connect with research on inter-brain coupling (Konvalinka and Roepstorff, 2012) and research on affective co-regulation in close relationships (Butler and Randall, 2013).”
From Synchrony in Psychotherapy: A Review and an Integrative Framework for the Therapeutic Alliance (2016) · cites this paper as Konvalinka and Roepstorff, 2012
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Social Cognitive Neuroscience: A Review of Core Processes
Lieberman, M. D. (2007) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085654 · Cited by 2,010 · see citing works
Speaker-listener neural coupling underlies successful communication
Stephens, G. J., Silbert, L. J., & Hasson, U. (2010) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1008662107 · Cited by 970 · see citing works
Inter-Brain Synchronization during Social Interaction
Dumas, G., Nadel, J., Soussignan, R., Martinerie, J., & Garnero, L. (2010) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012166 · Cited by 966 · see citing works
Cui, X., Bryant, D. M., & Reiss, A. L. (2012) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.09.003 · Cited by 807 · see citing works
Rocking together: Dynamics of intentional and unintentional interpersonal coordination
Richardson, M. J., Marsh, K. L., Isenhower, R. W., Goodman, J. R. L., & Schmidt, R. C. (2007) · Human Movement Science · doi:10.1016/j.humov.2007.07.002 · Cited by 796 · cited 4× · see citing works
“But is it just a matter of finding the right experimental paradigm and overcoming the methodological constraints that poses a problem?”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialMutual interpersonal postural constraints are involved in cooperative conversation.
Shockley, K., Santana, M.-V., & Fowler, C. A. (2003) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance · doi:10.1037/0096-1523.29.2.326 · Cited by 681 · see citing works
Synchronized arousal between performers and related spectators in a fire-walking ritual
Konvalinka, I., Xygalatas, D., Bulbulia, J., Schjødt, U., Jegindø, E.-M., Wallot, S., Van Orden, G., & Roepstorff, A. (2011) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1016955108 · Cited by 632 · cited 2× · see citing works
“…Konvalinka et al., 2010), posture (Shockley et al., 2003), autonomic systems (Muller and Lindenberger, 2011) such as respiration (McFarland, 2001) and cardiac rhythms (Konvalinka et al., 2011), and potentially neural rhythms (Dumas et al., 2011; Hasson et al., 2012) between the two individuals.”
BackgroundSelf-citationBrains swinging in concert: cortical phase synchronization while playing guitar.
Lindenberger, U., Li, S.-C., Gruber, W., & Müller, V. (2009) · BMC Neuroscience · doi:10.1186/1471-2202-10-22 · Cited by 444 · see citing works
Follow you, follow me: continuous mutual prediction and adaptation in joint tapping
Konvalinka, I., Vuust, P., Roepstorff, A., & Frith, C. D. (2010) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17470218.2010.497843 · Cited by 421 · see citing works
Self-citationTwin Peaks: An ERP Study of Action Planning and Control in Coacting Individuals
Sebanz, N., Knoblich, G., Prinz, W., & Wascher, E. (2006) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2006.18.5.859 · Cited by 215 · see citing works
Flow of affective information between communicating brains
Anders, S., Heinzle, J., Weiskopf, N., Ethofer, T., & Haynes, J.-D. (2011) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.07.004 · Cited by 206 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 40
- Adolphs R. (1999). Social cognition and the human brain. Trends Cogn. Sci. 3, 469– 479 10.1016/S1364-6613(99)01399-6 10562726 · DOI · Paper page
- Astolfi L. Cincotti F. Mattia D. De Vico Fallani F. Salinari S. Vecchiato G. Toppi J. Wilke C. Doud A. Yuan H. He B. Babiloni F. (2010a). Imaging the social brain: multi-subjects EEG recordings during the “Chicken's game”. Conf. Proc. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc. 2010, 1734– 1737 10.1109/IEMBS.2010.5626708 21096409 · DOI
- Astolfi L. Toppi J. De Vico Fallani F. Vecchiato G. Salinari S. Mattia D. Cincotti F. Babiloni F. (2010b). Neuroelectrical hyperscanning measures simultaneous brain activity in humans. Brain Topogr. 23, 243– 256 10.1007/s10548-010-0147-9 20480221 · DOI
- Babiloni F. Astolfi L. Cincotti F. Mattia D. Tocci A. Tarantino A. Marciani M. Salinari S. Gao S. Colosimo A. De Vico Fallani F. (2007a). Cortical activity and connectivity of human brain during the prisoner's dilemma: an EEG hyperscanning study. Conf. Proc. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc. 2007, 4953– 4956 10.1109/IEMBS.2007.4353452 18003118 · DOI
- Babiloni F. Cincotti F. Mattia D. De Vico Fallani F. Tocci A. Bianchi L. Salinari S. Marciani M. Colosimo A. Astolfi L. (2007b). High resolution EEG hyperscanning during a card game. Conf. Proc. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc. 2007, 4957– 4960 10.1109/IEMBS.2007.4353453 18003119 · DOI
- Babiloni F. Cincotti F. Mattia D. Mattiocco M. De Vico Fallani F. Tocci A. Bianchi L. Marciani M. G. Astolfi L. (2006). Hypermethods for EEG hyperscanning. Conf. Proc. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc. 1, 3666– 3669 10.1109/IEMBS.2006.260754 17945788 · DOI
- Baccala L. A. Sameshima K. (2001). Partial directed coherence: a new concept in neural structure determination. Biol. Cybern. 84, 463– 474 11417058
- Bahrami B. Olsen K. Latham P. E. Roepstorff A. Rees G. Frith C. D. (2010). Optimally interacting minds. Science 329, 1081– 1085 10.1126/science.1185718 20798320 PMC3371582 · DOI · Paper page
- Brothers L. (1990). The social brain: a project for integrating primate behavior and neurophysiology in a new domain. Concepts Neurosci. 1, 27– 51 10.1093/schbul/sbq012 20185539 PMC3160231 · DOI
- De Jaegher H. (2009). Social understanding through direct perception? Yes, by interacting. Conscious. Cogn. 18, 535– 542 discussion: 543– 550 10.1016/j.concog.2008.10.007 19091603 · DOI
- De Jaegher H. Di Paolo E. Gallagher S. (2010). Can social interaction constitute social cognition? Trends Cogn. Sci. 14, 441– 447 10.1016/j.tics.2010.06.009 20674467 · DOI · Paper page
- De Vico Fallani F. Nicosia V. Sinatra R. Astolfi L. Cincotti F. Mattia D. Wilke C. Doud A. Latora V. He B. Babiloni F. (2010). Defecting or not defecting: how to “read” human behavior during cooperative games by EEG measurements. PLoS ONE 5: e14187 10.1371/journal.pone.0014187 21152069 PMC2995728 · DOI
- Dodel S. Cohn J. Mersmann J. Luu P. Forsythe C. Jirsa V. (2011). Brain signatures of team performance, in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag), 288– 297
- Dumas G. (2011). Towards a two-body neuroscience. Commun. Integr. Biol. 4, 349– 352 10.4161/cib.4.3.15110 21980578 PMC3187906 · DOI
- Dumas G. Lachat F. Martinerie J. Nadel J. George N. (2011). From social behaviour to brain synchronization: review and perspectives in hyperscanning. IRBM 32, 48– 53
- Frith C. D. (2007). The social brain? Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 362, 671– 678 10.1098/rstb.2006.2003 17255010 PMC1919402 · DOI · Paper page
- Fusaroli R. Bahrami B. Olsen K. Roepstorff A. Rees G. Frith C. Tylen K. (2012). Coming to terms: quantifying the benefits of linguistic coordination. Psychol. Sci. (in press). 22810169
- Hari R. Kujala M. V. (2009). Brain basis of human social interaction: from concepts to brain imaging. Physiol. Rev. 89, 453– 479 10.1152/physrev.00041.2007 19342612 · DOI · Paper page
- Hari R. Parkkonen L. Nangini C. (2010). The brain in time: insights from neuromagnetic recordings. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1191, 89– 109 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05438.x 20392277 · DOI
- Hasson U. Ghazanfar A. A. Galantucci B. Garrod S. Keysers C. (2012). Brain-to-brain coupling: a mechanism for creating and sharing a social world. Trends Cogn. Sci. 16, 114– 121 10.1016/j.tics.2011.12.007 22221820 PMC3269540 · DOI · Paper page
- Haynes J. Rees G. (2006). Decoding mental states from brain activity in humans. Nat. Neurosci. 7, 523– 534 10.1038/nrn1931 16791142 · DOI
- King-Casas B. Tomlin D. Anen C. Camerer C. F. Quartz S. R. Montague P. R. (2005). Getting to know you: reputation and trust in a two-person economic exchange. Science 308, 78– 83 10.1126/science.1108062 15802598 · DOI · Paper page
- Lemm S. Blankertz B. Dickhaus T. Muller K. R. (2011). Introduction to machine learning for brain imaging. Neuroimage 56, 387– 399 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.11.004 21172442 · DOI
- McFarland D. H. (2001). Respiratory markers of conversational interaction. J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res. 44, 128– 143 11218097
- Montague P. R. Berns G. S. Cohen J. D. McClure S. M. Pagnoni G. Dhamala M. Wiest M. C. Karpov I. King R. D. Apple N. Fisher R. E. (2002). Hyperscanning: simultaneous fMRI during linked social interactions. Neuroimage 16, 1159– 1164 10.1006/nimg.2002.1150 12202103 · DOI · Paper page
- Muller V. Lindenberger U. (2011). Cardiac and respiratory patterns synchronize between persons during choir singing. PLoS ONE 6: e24893 10.1371/journal.pone.0024893 21957466 PMC3177845 · DOI · Paper page
- Noy L. Dekel E. Alon U. (2011). The mirror game as a paradigm for studying the dynamics of two people improvising motion together. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 108, 20947– 20952 10.1038/msb.2010.102 22160696 PMC3248496 · DOI
- Redcay E. Dodell-Feder D. Pearrow M. J. Mavros P. L. Kleiner M. Gabrieli J. D. Saxe R. (2010). Live face-to-face interaction during fMRI: a new tool for social cognitive neuroscience. Neuroimage 50, 1639– 1647 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.01.052 20096792 PMC2849986 · DOI · Paper page
- Roepstorff A. Frith C. (2004). What's at the top in the top-down control of action? Script-sharing and ‘top-top’ control of action in cognitive experiments. Psychol. Res. 68, 189– 198 10.1007/s00426-003-0155-4 14762716 · DOI
- Saito D. N. Tanabe H. C. Izuma K. Hayashi M. J. Morito Y. Komeda H. Uchiyama H. Kosaka H. Okazawa H. Fujibayashi Y. Sadato N. (2010). “Stay tuned”: inter-individual neural synchronization during mutual gaze and joint attention. Front. Integr. Neurosci. 4: 127 10.3389/fnint.2010.00127 21119770 PMC2990457 · DOI
- Schilbach L. (2010). A second-person approach to other minds. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 11, 449 10.1038/nrn2805-c1 20485366 · DOI
- Schippers M. B. Roebroeck A. Renken R. Nanetti L. Keysers C. (2010). Mapping the information flow from one brain to another during gestural communication. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 107, 9388– 9393 10.1073/pnas.1001791107 20439736 PMC2889063 · DOI · Paper page
- Schmidt R. C. Bienvenu M. Fitzpatrick P. A. Amazeen P. G. (1998). A comparison of intra- and interpersonal interlimb coordination: coordination breakdowns and coupling strength. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 24, 884– 900 10.1037/0096-1523.24.3.884 9627423 · DOI
- Schmidt R. C. Richardson M. J. (2008). Dynamics of interpersonal coordination, in Coordination: Neural, Behavioral and Social Dynamics, eds Fuchs A. Jirsa V. K. (Berlin: Springer-Verlag), 281– 308
- Sebanz N. Bekkering H. Knoblich G. (2006a). Joint action: bodies and minds moving together. Trends Cogn. Sci. 10, 70– 76 10.1016/j.tics.2005.12.009 16406326 · DOI · Paper page
- Sebanz N. Rebbechi D. Knoblich G. Prinz W. Frith C. D. (2007). Is it really my turn? An event-related fMRI study of task sharing. Soc. Neurosci. 2, 81– 95 10.1080/17470910701237989 18633808 · DOI
- Seth A. K. (2010). Measuring autonomy and emergence via Granger causality. Artif. Life 16, 179– 196 10.1162/artl.2010.16.2.16204 20067405 · DOI
- Stivers T. Enfield N. J. Brown P. Englert C. Hayashi M. Heinemann T. Hoymann G. Rossano F. De Ruiter J. P. Yoon K. E. Levinson S. C. (2009). Universals and cultural variation in turn-taking in conversation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106, 10587– 10592 10.1073/pnas.0903616106 19553212 PMC2705608 · DOI · Paper page
- Tognoli E. Lagarde J. Deguzman G. C. Kelso J. A. (2007). The phi complex as a neuromarker of human social coordination. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104, 8190– 8195 10.1073/pnas.0611453104 17470821 PMC1859993 · DOI · Paper page
- Tononi G. (2008). Consciousness as integrated information: a provisional manifesto. Biol. Bull. 215, 216– 242 19098144
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Toward a second-person neuroscience
Schilbach, L., Timmermans, B., Reddy, V., Costall, A., Bente, G., Schlicht, T., & Vogeley, K. (2013) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x12000660 · Cited by 1,510 · see citing works
Hyperscanning: A Valid Method to Study Neural Inter-Brain Underpinnings of Social Interaction
Czeszumski, A., Eustergerling, S., Lang, A., Menrath, D., Gerstenberger, M., Schuberth, S., Schreiber, F., Rendon, Z. Z., & König, P. (2020) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2020.00039 · Cited by 511 · see citing works
Synchrony in Psychotherapy: A Review and an Integrative Framework for the Therapeutic Alliance
Koole, S. L., & Tschacher, W. (2016) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00862 · Cited by 456 · see citing works
“…to the scientific analysis of the alliance, including relationships science (e.g., Fitzsimons et al., 2015), social-cognitive neuroscience (e.g., Konvalinka and Roepstorff, 2012), cognitive linguistics (Fusaroli et al., 2012), emotion science (Rimé, 2009), and dynamical systems theory…”
BackgroundMethodReindl, V., Gerloff, C., Scharke, W., & Konrad, K. (2018) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.05.060 · Cited by 411 · see citing works
Hirsch, J., Zhang, X., Noah, J. A., & Ono, Y. (2017) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.06.018 · Cited by 236 · see citing works
Oxytocin enhances inter-brain synchrony during social coordination in male adults
Mu, Y., Guo, C., & Han, S. (2016) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsw106 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
Golland, Y., Arzouan, Y., & Levit-Binnun, N. (2015) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125804 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Being in the zone: physiological markers of togetherness in joint improvisation
Noy, L., Levit-Binun, N., & Golland, Y. (2015) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00187 · Cited by 148 · see citing works
Georgescu, A. L., Kuzmanovic, B., Roth, D., Bente, G., & Vogeley, K. (2014) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00807 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
A cross-brain neural mechanism for human-to-human verbal communication
Hirsch, J., Adam Noah, J., Zhang, X., Dravida, S., & Ono, Y. (2018) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsy070 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Nozawa, T., Sakaki, K., Ikeda, S., Jeong, H., Yamazaki, S., Kawata, K. H. D. S., Kawata, N. Y. D. S., Sasaki, Y., Kulason, K., Hirano, K., et al. (2019) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-019-49257-z · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Schilbach, L., & Redcay, E. (2025) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-080123-101149 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Tylén, K., Allen, M., Hunter, B. K., & Roepstorff, A. (2012) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2012.00331 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Self-citationTakei, Y., Suda, M., Aoyama, Y., Sakurai, N., Tagawa, M., Motegi, T., Yamaguchi, M., Narita, K., & Fukuda, M. (2014) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2014.06.009 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Affiliative zygomatic synchrony in co-present strangers
Golland, Y., Mevorach, D., & Levit-Binnun, N. (2019) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-019-40060-4 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
The role of reciprocity in dynamic interpersonal coordination of physiological rhythms
Konvalinka, I., Sebanz, N., & Knoblich, G. (2023) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105307 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Konvalinka, I., & Roepstorff, A.
- Affiliations
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Konvalinka, Ivana
- Venue
- Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2012
- Volume
- 6
- Pages
- 215-215
- ISSN
- 1662-5161 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3402900
- OpenAlex
- W2144925368
- Cited by
- 324
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 31 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 37.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Research Foundation
- Danmarks Grundforskningsfond
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- social interaction, neuronal synchronization, theory of mind, functional connectivity, inter-brain coupling, face-to-face interaction, emergence, multivariate decoding, social cognition
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
