title: Investigating Cooperative Behavior in Ecological Settings: An EEG Hyperscanning Study.
abstract: The coordinated interactions between individuals are fundamental for the success of the activities in some professional categories. We reported on brain-to-brain cooperative interactions between civil pilots during a simulated flight. We demonstrated for the first time how the combination of neuroelectrical hyperscanning and intersubject connectivity could provide indicators sensitive to the humans' degree of synchronization under a highly demanding task performed in an ecological environment. Our results showed how intersubject connectivity was able to i) characterize the degree of cooperation between pilots in different phases of the flight, and ii) to highlight the role of specific brain macro areas in cooperative behavior. During the most cooperative flight phases pilots showed, in fact, dense patterns of interbrain connectivity, mainly linking frontal and parietal brain areas. On the contrary, the amount of interbrain connections went close to zero in the non-cooperative phase. The reliability of the interbrain connectivity patterns was verified by means of a baseline condition represented by formal couples, i.e. pilots paired offline for the connectivity analysis but not simultaneously recorded during the flight. Interbrain density was, in fact, significantly higher in real couples with respect to formal couples in the cooperative flight phases. All the achieved results demonstrated how the description of brain networks at the basis of cooperation could effectively benefit from a hyperscanning approach. Interbrain connectivity was, in fact, more informative in the investigation of cooperative behavior with respect to established EEG signal processing methodologies applied at a single subject level.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Via Ariosto 25, I - 00185, Rome, Italy.|IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Neuroelectrical Imaging and BCI Lab, Via Ardeatina 306, I- 00179, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Jlenia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Toppi
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Neuroelectrical Imaging and BCI Lab, Via Ardeatina 306, I- 00179, Rome, Italy.|Dept. of Molecular Medicine, "Sapienza" University of Rome, viale Regina Elena 291, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianluca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Borghini
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Via Ariosto 25, I - 00185, Rome, Italy.|IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Neuroelectrical Imaging and BCI Lab, Via Ardeatina 306, I- 00179, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petti
authors.affiliation: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, Stati Uniti, United States of America.
authors.forename: Eric J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Molecular Medicine, "Sapienza" University of Rome, viale Regina Elena 291, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Vittorio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: De Giusti
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, 7-105 Hasselmo Hall 312 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Via Ariosto 25, I - 00185, Rome, Italy.|IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Neuroelectrical Imaging and BCI Lab, Via Ardeatina 306, I- 00179, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Astolfi
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Neuroelectrical Imaging and BCI Lab, Via Ardeatina 306, I- 00179, Rome, Italy.|Dept. of Molecular Medicine, "Sapienza" University of Rome, viale Regina Elena 291, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Babiloni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001359:Aviation; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004463:Ecology; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D000070356:Pilots / Q000523:psychology*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D000078329:Workforce