Functional near-infrared imaging (fNIRI) hyperscanning successfully demonstrated inter-personal brain-to-brain coupling across various social interaction paradigms in all seven reviewed studies.
Since the first demonstration of how to simultaneously measure brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on two subjects about 10 years ago, a new paradigm in neuroscience is emerging: measuring brain activity from two or more people simultaneously, termed "hyperscanning". The hyperscanning approach has the potential to reveal inter-personal brain mechanisms underlying interaction-mediated brain-to-brain coupling. These mechanisms are engaged during real social interactions, and cannot be captured using single-subject recordings. In particular, functional near-infrared imaging (fNIRI) hyperscanning is a promising new method, offering a cost-effective, easy to apply and reliable technology to measure inter-personal interactions in a natural context. In this short review we report on fNIRI hyperscanning studies published so far and summarize opportunities and challenges for future studies.
Scholkmann et al. (Tue,) conducted a review in Social interaction (inter-personal brain coupling). Functional near-infrared imaging (fNIRI) hyperscanning vs. Single-subject recordings or baseline was evaluated on Inter-personal brain-to-brain coupling. Functional near-infrared imaging (fNIRI) hyperscanning successfully demonstrated inter-personal brain-to-brain coupling across various social interaction paradigms in all seven reviewed studies.