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Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Apr 13;9(2):ENEURO.0268-21.2022.
doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0268-21.2022. Print 2022 Mar-Apr.

Cooperative Behavior Evokes Interbrain Synchrony in the Prefrontal and Temporoparietal Cortex: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of fNIRS Hyperscanning Studies

Artur Czeszumski  1   2 , Sophie Hsin-Yi Liang  3   4 , Suzanne Dikker  5   6   2 , Peter König  7   8 , Chin-Pang Lee  3   9 , Sander L Koole  2 , Brent Kelsen  10
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Cooperative Behavior Evokes Interbrain Synchrony in the Prefrontal and Temporoparietal Cortex: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of fNIRS Hyperscanning Studies

Artur Czeszumski et al. eNeuro. .

Abstract

Single-brain neuroimaging studies have shown that human cooperation is associated with neural activity in frontal and temporoparietal regions. However, it remains unclear whether single-brain studies are informative about cooperation in real life, where people interact dynamically. Such dynamic interactions have become the focus of interbrain studies. An advantageous technique in this regard is functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) because it is less susceptible to movement artifacts than more conventional techniques like electroencephalography (EEG) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We conducted a systematic review and the first quantitative meta-analysis of fNIRS hyperscanning of cooperation, based on thirteen studies with 890 human participants. Overall, the meta-analysis revealed evidence of statistically significant interbrain synchrony while people were cooperating, with large overall effect sizes in both frontal and temporoparietal areas. All thirteen studies observed significant interbrain synchrony in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), suggesting that this region is particularly relevant for cooperative behavior. The consistency in these findings is unlikely to be because of task-related activations, given that the relevant studies used diverse cooperation tasks. Together, the present findings support the importance of interbrain synchronization of frontal and temporoparietal regions in interpersonal cooperation. Moreover, the present article highlights the usefulness of meta-analyses as a tool for discerning patterns in interbrain dynamics.

Keywords: cooperation; fNIRS; hyperscanning; interbrain synchrony.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flowchart of selection process.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Interbrain synchrony in different parts of the prefrontal and temporoparietal cortex in various tasks used to study cooperation.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Forest plot of all included studies. Boxes represent effect sizes and whiskers confidence intervals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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