Billeke Pablo, Zamorano Francisco, Chavez Mario, Cosmelli Diego, Aboitiz Francisco
División Neurociencia de la Conducta, Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social (CICS), Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile; Centro Interdisciplinario de Neurociencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Departamento de Psiquiatría, Escuela de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
CNRS UMR-7225, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, Paris, France.
PLoS One. 2014 Oct 6;9(10):e109829. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109829. eCollection 2014.
Solving demanding tasks requires fast and flexible coordination among different brain areas. Everyday examples of this are the social dilemmas in which goals tend to clash, requiring one to weigh alternative courses of action in limited time. In spite of this fact, there are few studies that directly address the dynamics of flexible brain network integration during social interaction. To study the preceding, we carried out EEG recordings while subjects played a repeated version of the Ultimatum Game in both human (social) and computer (non-social) conditions. We found phase synchrony (inter-site-phase-clustering) modulation in alpha band that was specific to the human condition and independent of power modulation. The strength and patterns of the inter-site-phase-clustering of the cortical networks were also modulated, and these modulations were mainly in frontal and parietal regions. Moreover, changes in the individuals' alpha network structure correlated with the risk of the offers made only in social conditions. This correlation was independent of changes in power and inter-site-phase-clustering strength. Our results indicate that, when subjects believe they are participating in a social interaction, a specific modulation of functional cortical networks in alpha band takes place, suggesting that phase synchrony of alpha oscillations could serve as a mechanism by which different brain areas flexibly interact in order to adapt ongoing behavior in socially demanding contexts.
解决复杂任务需要不同脑区之间快速且灵活的协调。日常生活中的例子就是社会困境，其中目标往往相互冲突，这就要求人们在有限时间内权衡不同的行动方案。尽管如此，很少有研究直接探讨社交互动过程中灵活的脑网络整合动态。为了研究上述问题，我们在受试者分别处于人际（社交）和计算机（非社交）两种情境下玩重复版最后通牒博弈时进行了脑电图记录。我们发现，阿尔法波段存在相位同步（位点间相位聚类）调制，这种调制特定于人所处的情境，且与功率调制无关。皮层网络位点间相位聚类的强度和模式也受到调制，这些调制主要发生在额叶和顶叶区域。此外，个体阿尔法网络结构的变化仅与社交情境中所提提议的风险相关。这种相关性与功率和位点间相位聚类强度的变化无关。我们的研究结果表明，当受试者认为自己参与社交互动时，阿尔法波段的功能性皮层网络会发生特定调制，这表明阿尔法振荡的相位同步可能是一种机制，通过该机制不同脑区能够灵活互动，以便在社会要求较高的情境中调整当前行为。
