Cognitive Neuroscience of Perception and Action, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
Eur J Neurosci. 2023 Jul;58(1):2248-2266. doi: 10.1111/ejn.16037. Epub 2023 May 21.
In joint action, agents are assumed to represent their partner's task to optimize joint performance. However, the neurophysiological processes underlying the processing of the partner's task have not been widely investigated. Pairs of participants were asked to perform a joint version of a visual search task in either a cooperative or a competitive social context. During the task, one agent's neural activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). The alpha-lateralization index was calculated as [(contralateral - ipsilateral)/(contralateral + ipsilateral)] × 100 to examine attentional selection or suppression of the laterally presented stimulus. A negative alpha-lateralization indicates lower alpha-band power over the contralateral sites compared with the ipsilateral sites and was related to attentional selection. A positive alpha-lateralization indicates higher alpha-band power over the contralateral sites compared with the ipsilateral sites and was related to attentional suppression. Behavioural results showed impeded search performance when the partner target was present. Furthermore, EEG time-frequency results showed that the partner target induced a negative parieto-occipital alpha-lateralization, indicating that it captured attention, when the agent target was absent. When the agent target was present, the parieto-occipital alpha-lateralization index was negative for laterally presented partner target in the cooperative and positive in the competitive social context, indicative of attentional capture in the cooperative condition and suppression of the partner target in the competitive condition. In sum, our study showed that humans tune their attentional processing towards a partner target in a joint action task. This attentional tuning was shown to be affected by social context and the presence of the agent's own target.
在联合行动中，假定代理人代表其伙伴的任务来优化联合表现。然而，对于处理伙伴任务的神经生理过程还没有进行广泛的研究。参与者被要求在合作或竞争的社会环境中执行联合视觉搜索任务。在任务期间，使用脑电图 (EEG) 记录一个代理人的神经活动。阿尔法侧化指数的计算方法为 [(对侧-同侧)/(对侧+同侧)]×100，以检查对侧呈现的刺激的注意力选择或抑制。负的阿尔法侧化指数表示与同侧相比，对侧的阿尔法频段功率较低，与注意力选择有关。正的阿尔法侧化指数表示与同侧相比，对侧的阿尔法频段功率较高，与注意力抑制有关。行为结果表明，当伙伴目标存在时，搜索表现受到阻碍。此外，脑电图时频结果表明，当代理人目标不存在时，伙伴目标会引起负的顶枕部阿尔法侧化，表明它吸引了注意力。当代理人目标存在时，对于在合作和竞争社会环境中呈现的侧方伙伴目标，顶枕部阿尔法侧化指数为负，表明在合作条件下注意力被捕获，而在竞争条件下对伙伴目标进行抑制。总之，我们的研究表明，人类在联合行动任务中会调整自己的注意力处理方式以适应伙伴目标。这种注意力调整被证明受到社会环境和代理人自身目标的存在的影响。
