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Towards two-person neuroscience

Final Report Summary - BRAIN2BRAIN (Towards two-person neuroscience)

In the ERC-funded Brain2Brain project, we have developed concepts and methods to study the brain basis of social interaction and to proceed towards “two-person neuroscience” (2PN). The main driving force is the importance, omnipresence, complexity and still surprising easiness of human social interaction.

Our two main brain imaging tools have been magnetoencephalography (MEG) that provides millisecond-accurate information about synchronous neuronal firing within the human brain (especially in cerebral cortex) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that tracks blood-oxygen-level-dependent changes in brain activity; fMRI is spatially very accurate but timewise sluggish as it relies on hemodynamic changes related to neuronal activity.

To proceed towards 2PN settings, we have designed and constructed an internet-based audiovisual link between two MEG systems. The sensory stimuli (voice, vision of the other person, and subjects’ movements) were synchronized with and MEG signals both locally and between the two sites. We have tested the setup between laboratories separated by 5 kilometres in Finland and between two laboratories located in different countries (Finland and Belgium). One extremely difficult part of the project is the analysis of the brain signals of the two interacting subjects, and we still have much to learn and improve in that respect. The setups for MEG2MEG as well for simultaneous fMRI recordings from two subjects in a single magnet (funded by a parallel project) can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP9fKQyLHrw

We have invested a lot of interest in developing naturalistic experimental conditions, so as to bring the everyday life into a brain-imaging laboratory. We have recorded fMRI and MEG (in separate sessions, of course) from subjects who view movies. Focusing the analysis on intersubject correlations rather than on individual signal amplitudes, we have e.g. shown that emotions, and especially negative ones, increase the intersubject synchrony.

We have introduced a web-based self-reporting tool of bodily feelings, and the resulting research publication has surprised us by becoming a real social media hit.
http://www.altmetric.com/details.php?domain=www.pnas.org&citation_id=2011467