title: Information flow between interacting human brains: Identification, validation, and relationship to social expertise.
abstract: Social interactions are fundamental for human behavior, but the quantification of their neural underpinnings remains challenging. Here, we used hyperscanning functional MRI (fMRI) to study information flow between brains of human dyads during real-time social interaction in a joint attention paradigm. In a hardware setup enabling immersive audiovisual interaction of subjects in linked fMRI scanners, we characterize cross-brain connectivity components that are unique to interacting individuals, identifying information flow between the sender's and receiver's temporoparietal junction. We replicate these findings in an independent sample and validate our methods by demonstrating that cross-brain connectivity relates to a key real-world measure of social behavior. Together, our findings support a central role of human-specific cortical areas in the brain dynamics of dyadic interactions and provide an approach for the noninvasive examination of the neural basis of healthy and disturbed human social behavior with minimal a priori assumptions.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy.
authors.forename: Edda
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bilek
authors.affiliation: Neuroimaging.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ruf
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy.
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schäfer
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy.
authors.forename: Ceren
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Akdeniz
authors.affiliation: Mind Research Network, Albuquerque, NM 87131; and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131.
authors.forename: Vince D
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Calhoun
authors.affiliation: Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, and.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schmahl
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy.
authors.forename: Charmaine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Demanuele
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy.
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tost
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68159 Mannheim, Germany;
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kirsch
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, a.meyer-lindenberg@zi-mannheim.de.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meyer-Lindenberg
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: fMRI; hyperscanning; joint attention
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