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Dyad sex composition effect on inter-brain...
Journal article

Dyad sex composition effect on inter-brain synchronization in face-to-face cooperation

Abstract

Human cooperation behavior based on reciprocal altruism has been a hallmark of ancient and modern societies. Prior studies have indicated that inter-brain synchronization (IBS) between partners could exist during cooperation. However, how the sex composition of dyads influences the neural synchronization is still poorly understood. Here, we adopted functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) based hyperscanning and a task of building blocks to investigate the sex composition effect on IBS in face-to-face cooperation in a natural situation, by evaluating brain-to-brain interactions of forty-five same-sex and mixed-sex dyads. Results showed significantly stronger inter-brain synchronization in Brodmann area 10 (BA10) in cooperation. In addition, variance analysis indicated that only male-male dyads showed increased inter-brain synchronization in left inferior frontal region (i.e., BA10) specific to cooperation. More importantly, the inter-brain synchronization in male-male dyads was significantly greater than that in male-female and female-female dyads. These findings provide support for the impact of sex composition on social cooperation in a naturalistic interactive setting and extend our knowledge on the neural basis of face-to-face cooperation.

Authors

Li Y; Chen R; Turel O; Feng T; Zhu C-Z; He Q

Journal

Brain Imaging and Behavior, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 1667–1675

Publisher

Springer Nature

Publication Date

June 1, 2021

DOI

10.1007/s11682-020-00361-z

ISSN

1931-7557

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