Research Unit in Affective and Social Neuroscience, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2020 Mar 25;10(1):5394. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-62421-0.
The gift exchange represents a moment that characterizes interpersonal interactions. In particular, research in psychological and neuroscientific fields aimed to observe the social function of gift exchange. Specifically, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of prosocial behavior, experienced during gift exchange, on individuals' cognitive performance and brain activity. To this aim, behavioral performance and neural activity of 15 dyads of participants, with a consolidated friendship, were collected during the execution of an attentional cooperative task before or after a gift exchange. Individuals' brain activity was recorded through the use of Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in hyperscanning. Results showed an increase of perceived cooperation and cognitive performance, in terms of accuracy (ACC), after gift exchange. The increase of interpersonal tuning and cooperation was also shown by neural activity with an increase of oxygenated hemoglobin (O2Hb) intra-brain and inter-brain connectivity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) following the gift exchange. Moreover, from ConIndex analysis emerged an increase of inter-brain connectivity compared to intra-brain in DLPFC area. The present study, therefore, highlights how prosocial behavior can have positive effects on cognitive performance improvement and interpersonal relationships and neural coordination strengthen, increasing intra and inter-brain connectivity mechanisms.
礼物交换代表了一个具有人际互动特征的时刻。特别是，心理和神经科学领域的研究旨在观察礼物交换的社会功能。具体来说，本研究旨在调查礼物交换过程中经历的亲社会行为对个体认知表现和大脑活动的影响。为此，在礼物交换前后，对 15 对具有牢固友谊的参与者的行为表现和大脑活动进行了注意力合作任务的执行。通过使用功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）在超扫描中记录个体的大脑活动。结果表明，在礼物交换后，参与者的合作意识和认知表现（准确性，ACC）提高。礼物交换后，大脑中含氧血红蛋白（O2Hb）的增加以及背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）中的脑间和脑内连接的增加，表明人际协调和合作的增加。此外，从 ConIndex 分析中得出，与脑内相比，DLPFC 区域的脑间连接增加。因此，本研究强调了亲社会行为如何对认知表现的提高和人际关系以及神经协调的增强产生积极影响，从而增加了脑内和脑间连接的机制。
