![]() Before, single brain studies were conducted to explore the hemodynamic and electrophysiological (EEG) neural correlates of the IA manipulation (conceived as the focus on the breath for a given time interval) on interpersonal synchronization required by performing simple motor or cognitive joint tasks 15, 16, 17, 18. Nonetheless, so far, there have only been a few research efforts, particularly in the neuroscientific domain, looking at how interoception manipulation might affect the process of interpersonal synchronization. Thus, it could be relevant to study interoception in a social-interactional setting for deepening how humans’ interpersonal synchronization is mediated not only by the central nervous system and higher order processes, but also by lower-level functions, such as motor synchronization induced by respiration, which have a direct effect on high-order social processes. The infant's brain will gradually begin to mentalize her own interoceptive experiences and eventually conduct appropriate behaviors through such embodied interactions 13. Research on the psychophysiological coupling between caregivers and infants 12 is investigating the social origins of interoception 13, 14 and suggested that caregivers play a key role in both detecting the infant’s interoceptive perturbations that result in behavioral expressions of affective feelings as well as in providing a proper response to support the regulation of the infant’s needs. According to a developmental perspective, infants build expectations about the cause of their internal sensations via a dynamic process of interoceptive distinction between self and other, and develop their interoceptive processing through a fundamental social process, that is the caregiver-infant feeding interaction 11, but also through social touch 8. To this regard, the term “social interoception” was introduced in the literature to refer to how interoception affects a variety of social processes, including self-other distinction 5, social cognition (conceptualized in terms of the fundamental elements of theory of mind, empathy, and imitation 6), social isolation and connectedness 7 and emotional experience 8, 9, 10. Previously, interoception has been mainly studied as a process connected to the internal world of the individual, only recently new studies are focusing on how interception has an impact on the external world. This high order ability to intentionally focus on one’s body signal is the opposite of the exteroceptive attention, that is the attention to stimuli arising outside of the body. ![]() In particular, among the different components of interoception, “the attention to one’s inner body signal (such as the heartbeat or the breath) for a given interval of time” (i.e., Interoceptive Attentiveness, IA 2, 3) can be manipulated, modulated, and trained to impact positively on the individual’s emotional and cognitive well-being 4. Current definitions suggest that interoception is not a static type of perception, but a dynamic one, which can be modified and trained, for instance, by mind-and-body awareness practices. Interoception has been classically defined as the mechanism through which our brain perceives and integrates the information derived from our body 1. To conclude, the current hyperscanning study highlights how the manipulation of the interoceptive focus (obtained through the focus on the breath) strengthens the manifestation of the EEG markers of interpersonal tuning during a motor synchronization task in specific brain areas. Results showed greater EEG coherence was observed for the alpha band in frontopolar brain regions (Fp1, Fp2) and also in central brain regions (C3, C4) within the dyads, during the focus on the breath condition for the motor compared to the cognitive synchronization task during the same experimental condition, delta and theta band showed augmented inter-individual coherence in the frontal region (Fz) and central areas (C3, C4). Individuals’ EEG frequency bands were recorded through EEG hyperscanning and coherence analysis was performed. ![]() To this aim, the neural activity of 15 dyads of participants was collected during the execution of a cognitive and motor synchronization task in two distinct IA conditions: focus and no focus on the breath condition. The aim of the present study was to assess the electrophysiological intersubject coherence through electrophysiological (EEG) hyperscanning recording during simple dyadic synchronization tasks when the participants focused on their breath. Previous single-brain studies suggested interoception plays a role in interpersonal synchronization.
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