Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Research Unit in Affective and Social Neuroscience, Catholic University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
BMC Neurosci. 2020 Apr 7;21(1):14. doi: 10.1186/s12868-020-00563-7.
Recently several studies in the psychological and social field have investigated the social function of gift exchange as a useful way for the consolidation of interpersonal and social relationships and the implementation of prosocial behaviors. Specifically, the present research wanted to explore if gift exchange, increased emotional sharing, gratitude and interpersonal cooperation, leading to an improvement in cognitive and behavioral performance. In this regard, neural connectivity and cognitive performance of 14 pairs of friends were recorded during the development of a joint attention task that involved a gift exchange at the beginning or halfway through the task. The moment of gift exchange was randomized within the pairs: for seven couples, it happened at task beginning, for the remaining seven later. Individuals' simultaneous brain activity was recorded through the use of two electroencephalograms (EEG) systems that were used in hyperscanning.
The results showed that after gift exchange there was an improvement in behavioral performance in terms of accuracy. For what concerns EEG, instead, an increase of delta and theta activation was observed in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) when gift exchange occurred at the beginning of the task. Furthermore, an increase in neural connectivity for delta and theta bands was observed.
The present research provides a significant contribution to the exploration of the factors contributing to the strengthening of social bonds, increasing cooperation, gratitude and prosocial behavior.
最近，心理学和社会学领域的几项研究调查了礼品交换的社会功能，认为这是巩固人际关系和社会关系以及实施亲社会行为的一种有效方式。具体来说，本研究旨在探讨礼品交换是否会增加情感分享、感激和人际合作，从而提高认知和行为表现。在这方面，我们记录了 14 对朋友在进行联合注意力任务时的神经连通性和认知表现，该任务在开始或中途进行了礼品交换。礼品交换的时刻在两人组内随机化：对于七对伴侣，它发生在任务开始时，对于其余七对伴侣，它发生在任务中途。通过使用两个脑电图 (EEG) 系统同时记录个体的大脑活动，该系统用于超扫描。
结果表明，礼品交换后，行为表现的准确性有所提高。就 EEG 而言，当礼品交换发生在任务开始时，背外侧前额叶皮层 (DLPFC) 中观察到 delta 和 theta 激活增加。此外，观察到 delta 和 theta 频段的神经连通性增加。
本研究为探索有助于加强社会联系、增加合作、感激和亲社会行为的因素提供了重要贡献。
