Leahy Octavia, Kontaris Emily, Gunasekara Natalie, Hirsch Joy, Tachtsidis Ilias
Optics Laboratory, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Health and Well-being Centre of Excellence, Givaudan UK Limited, Ashford, Kent, United Kingdom.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2025 Jul 31;19:1627457. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1627457. eCollection 2025.
Environmental factors play a critical role in shaping social interactions, and emerging evidence suggests they may also influence inter-brain coupling (IBC). The main purpose of this paper is to systematically review how environmental variables influence IBC during hyperscanning studies of social interactions. Additionally, this article provides an overview of the experimental protocols employed and identifies both opportunities and challenges within this evolving field.
Following PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic literature search in the PubMed and Scopus databases to identify relevant articles. Of the 106 articles initially identified, 7 met the inclusion criteria for this review. The selected articles are original research published up to February 2025, each employing hyperscanning techniques to observe IBC in response to manipulated environmental factors. Articles were excluded based on factors such as the absence of environmental manipulation or not measuring IBC as an outcome.
The findings reveal that IBC is significantly influenced by environmental factors such as interpersonal distance, background noise, virtual reality, and music. These factors modulate neural synchrony in brain regions critical for social cognition.
The limited number of studies in this area reflects both the emerging nature of this research field and the challenges associated with experimental protocols and funding. Despite these limitations, this review underscores the crucial role of environmental factors in shaping IBC during social interactions. This growing field holds great potential for guiding the design of supportive social settings and targeted interventions that promote social cohesion and mental wellbeing.
环境因素在塑造社会互动中起着关键作用，新出现的证据表明它们也可能影响脑间耦合（IBC）。本文的主要目的是系统回顾在社会互动的超扫描研究中环境变量如何影响IBC。此外，本文还概述了所采用的实验方案，并确定了这一不断发展的领域中的机遇和挑战。
遵循PRISMA指南，我们在PubMed和Scopus数据库中进行了系统的文献检索，以识别相关文章。在最初识别的106篇文章中，有7篇符合本综述的纳入标准。所选文章为截至2025年2月发表的原创研究，每篇均采用超扫描技术观察IBC对环境因素操纵的反应。根据是否缺乏环境操纵或未将IBC作为结果进行测量等因素排除文章。
研究结果表明，IBC受到人际距离、背景噪音、虚拟现实和音乐等环境因素的显著影响。这些因素调节对社会认知至关重要的脑区中的神经同步性。
该领域研究数量有限，既反映了这一研究领域的新兴性质，也反映了与实验方案和资金相关的挑战。尽管存在这些局限性，但本综述强调了环境因素在社会互动中塑造IBC的关键作用。这个不断发展的领域在指导支持性社会环境的设计和促进社会凝聚力及心理健康的针对性干预方面具有巨大潜力。
