title: Oxytocin enhances inter-brain synchrony during social coordination in male adults.
abstract: Recent brain imaging research has revealed oxytocin (OT) effects on an individual's brain activity during social interaction but tells little about whether and how OT modulates the coherence of inter-brain activity related to two individuals' coordination behavior. We developed a new real-time coordination game that required two individuals of a dyad to synchronize with a partner (coordination task) or with a computer (control task) by counting in mind rhythmically. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded simultaneously from a dyad to examine OT effects on inter-brain synchrony of neural activity during interpersonal coordination. Experiment 1 found that dyads showed smaller interpersonal time lags of counting and greater inter-brain synchrony of alpha-band neural oscillations during the coordination (vs control) task and these effects were reliably observed in female but not male dyads. Moreover, the increased alpha-band inter-brain synchrony predicted better interpersonal behavioral synchrony across all participants. Experiment 2, using a double blind, placebo-controlled between-subjects design, revealed that intranasal OT vs placebo administration in male dyads improved interpersonal behavioral synchrony in both the coordination and control tasks but specifically enhanced alpha-band inter-brain neural oscillations during the coordination task. Our findings provide first evidence that OT enhances inter-brain synchrony in male adults to facilitate social coordination.
authors: School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Mu
authors: Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors: Chunyan
authors: C
authors: Guo
authors: School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China shan@pku.edu.cn.
authors: Shihui
authors: S
authors: Han
mesh_terms: D000281:Administration, Intranasal; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010121:Oxytocin
keywords: EEG; inter-brain synchrony; neural oscillation; oxytocin; social coordination