Dual EEG alignment between participants during shared intentionality experiments

• Published in: Brain research Vol. 1790; p. 147986
• Main Authors: H. Myers, Mark, Hossain, Gahangir
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.09.2022
• Subjects: Amplitude modulation (AM); Cross spectral coherence; Maximal information coefficient (MIC) analysis; Maximum asymmetry score (MAS); Neurology; Shared intentionality; Social Neuroscience; Maximal information coefficient (MIC) analysis; Maximum asymmetry score (MAS); Cross spectral coherence; Amplitude modulation (AM); Shared intentionality; Social Neuroscience
• ISSN: 0006-8993; 1872-6240; 1872-6240
• DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2022.147986

•Results of quantitative EEG measurement of analytic amplitude and phase have shown synchronized activity occurring more often while the participant’s eyes were closed during coordinated movement. Most synchronized activity also occurred during beta-gamma ranges.•We find that neural oscillatory behavior synchronizes within the motor cortex as well, which may involve intentional governance by the cortex in order to enable lock step behavioral cues from both individuals. A feedback loop that is initiated from the protocol is reinforced by the participant’s interaction with each other within the experiment.•Trained neural conditioning between participants, shared intentionality is found during the ‘eyes closed’ session.•Social Neuroscience experiments involving parietal activity considered the dorsal visual stream, extending from primary visual areas to parietal cortices, in order for visual information to integrate with higher cortical processing areas. Electroencephalograph (EEG) analysis from human subjects have demonstrated that beta oscillations carried perceptual information across the cortex featuring amplitude and phase modulation occurrences when subjects are engaged in task-oriented activities. A hypothesis was tested that synchronized patterns could be found in the scalp EEG of two human subjects engaged in similar intentional activity. Signals were recorded from scalp electrodes and band-pass filtered. The Hilbert transform decomposes the EEG signals into the analytic phase and amplitude. With these components of the EEG signal, a systematic search of the alpha, beta, delta, gamma, and theta spectrum is executed to locate temporal patterns. The amplitude and phase modulation were classified with respect to task intervals. Temporal patterns were found in the alpha-beta range (15–30 Hz). Our results suggest that the scalp EEG can yield information about the timing of episodically synchronized brain activity in higher cognitive function between two individuals engaged in similar task-oriented activities.