Real-Time Eye-to-Eye Contact Is Associated With Cross-Brain Neural Coupling in Angular Gyrus

• Published in: Frontiers in human neuroscience Vol. 14; p. 19
• Main Authors: Noah, J Adam, Zhang, Xian, Dravida, Swethasri, Ono, Yumie, Naples, Adam, McPartland, James C, Hirsch, Joy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 06.02.2020; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: Autism; Communication; Eye contact; Eye movements; eye-to-eye contact; Face; fNIRS; Human Neuroscience; hyperscanning; Infrared spectroscopy; Light emitting diodes; live dyadic interactions; Pattern recognition; Social behavior; Social interaction; Spectrum analysis; temporoparietal junction; Time series; two-person neuroscience; fNIRS; eye-to-eye contact; hyperscanning; neural coherence; neural coupling; temporoparietal junction; two-person neuroscience; live dyadic interactions
• ISSN: 1662-5161; 1662-5161
• DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.00019

Direct eye contact between two individuals is a salient social behavior known to initiate and promote interpersonal interaction. However, the neural processes that underlie these live interactive behaviors and eye-to-eye contact are not well understood. The Dynamic Neural Coupling Hypothesis presents a general theoretical framework proposing that shared interactive behaviors are represented by cross-brain signal coherence. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) adapted for hyper scanning, we tested this hypothesis specifically for neural mechanisms associated with eye-to-eye gaze between human participants compared to similar direct eye-gaze at a dynamic video of a face and predicted that the coherence of neural signals between the two participants during reciprocal eye-to-eye contact would be greater than coherence observed during direct eye-gaze at a dynamic video for those signals originating in social and face processing systems. Consistent with this prediction cross-brain coherence was increased for signals within the angular gyrus (AG) during eye-to-eye contact relative to direct eye-gaze at a dynamic face video ( < 0.01). Further, activity in the right temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) was increased in the real eye-to-eye condition ( < 0.05, FDR corrected). Together, these findings advance a functional and mechanistic understanding of the AG and cross-brain neural coupling associated with real-time eye-to-eye contact.