School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, London, E1 4NS, United Kingdom.
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Commun Biol. 2022 May 4;5(1):412. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03352-6.
Humans make eye-contact to extract information about other people's mental states, recruiting dedicated brain networks that process information about the self and others. Recent studies show that eye-contact increases the synchronization between two brains but do not consider its effects on activity within single brains. Here we investigate how eye-contact affects the frequency and direction of the synchronization within and between two brains and the corresponding network characteristics. We also evaluate the functional relevance of eye-contact networks by comparing inter- and intra-brain networks of friends vs. strangers and the direction of synchronization between leaders and followers. We show that eye-contact increases higher inter- and intra-brain synchronization in the gamma frequency band. Network analysis reveals that some brain areas serve as hubs linking within- and between-brain networks. During eye-contact, friends show higher inter-brain synchronization than strangers. Dyads with clear leader/follower roles demonstrate higher synchronization from leader to follower in the alpha frequency band. Importantly, eye-contact affects synchronization between brains more than within brains, demonstrating that eye-contact is an inherently social signal. Future work should elucidate the causal mechanisms behind eye-contact induced synchronization.
人类通过眼神交流来提取关于他人心理状态的信息，利用专门的大脑网络来处理关于自我和他人的信息。最近的研究表明，眼神交流可以增加两个大脑之间的同步，但并没有考虑它对单个大脑内部活动的影响。在这里，我们研究了眼神交流如何影响两个大脑内部和之间的同步频率和方向，以及相应的网络特征。我们还通过比较朋友和陌生人之间的大脑内和大脑间网络以及领导者和跟随者之间的同步方向，来评估眼神交流网络的功能相关性。我们发现，眼神交流增加了伽马频段更高的大脑间和大脑内同步。网络分析显示，一些大脑区域作为连接大脑内和大脑间网络的枢纽。在眼神交流期间，朋友之间的大脑间同步比陌生人更高。具有明确领导者/跟随者角色的二人组在 alpha 频段中表现出从领导者到跟随者的更高同步。重要的是，眼神交流对大脑间的同步影响大于大脑内的同步，这表明眼神交流是一种固有的社交信号。未来的研究应该阐明眼神交流引起的同步背后的因果机制。
