Neuroimaging Approach to the Functional Neuroanatomy : From Human Brain Mapping of the Single Brain towards Network-Network Analysis of Real-time Social Interaction as “Two-in-One” System using Hyper-scanning fMRI

• Sadato Norihiro

  National Institute for Physiological Sciences

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

• PET・機能的MRIによるアプローチ 機能地図からネットワーク解析へ
• Neuroimaging Approach to the Functional Neuroanatomy : From Human Brain Mapping of the Single Brain towards Network-Network Analysis of Real-time Social Interaction as “Two-in-One” System using Hyper-scanning fMRI
• 「私たち」の脳科学に向けて : 2個人同時計測MRI研究

Abstract

  Functional neuroimaging techniques such as PET and functional MRI have been enhanced with a subtraction method allowing us to examine changes in brain activity associated with task performance. An implicit assumption of this method was that the brain is regarded as an input-output system driven by interaction with the external world. However, based on observations of spontaneous brain activity, or activity present even in the absence of task performance or stimuli, brain function can also be conceptualized as an operating-on-its-own system driven intrinsically, with external factors modulating rather than determining the operation of the system. Resting state network analysis with functional MRI is based on this conceptualization. Now this approach is being extended to across-brain network analysis to depict the neural representation of online social interaction. During a dyadic social interaction, two individuals can share visual attention through gaze, directed either to each other (eye contact) or to a third person or an object (joint attention). Eye contact and joint attention are tightly coupled to generate a state of shared attention across individuals. Hyperscanning fMRI in pairs of adults conducting joint attention tasks revealed the existence of an inter-individual neural synchronization in the right inferior frontal gyrus, after all the task-related effects were modeled out. We further conducted a two-day hyperscanning functional magnetic resonance imaging study in which pairs of participants performed a real-time mutual gaze task followed by a joint attention task on the first day, and mutual gaze tasks several days later. The joint attention task enhanced eye-blink synchronization, which is a behavioral index of shared attention. When the same participant pairs underwent mutual gaze without joint attention on the second day, enhanced eye-blink synchronization persisted, and this was positively correlated with inter-individual neural synchronization of the right inferior frontal gyrus. Thus, hyperscanning fMRI showed that the shared attention, a critical element of social interaction, is represented and retained by pair-specific neural synchronization that cannot be reduced to the individual level. The future perspective of this “we-mode” in neuroscience is discussed.

Journal

• Japanese Journal of Neurosurgery

  Japanese Journal of Neurosurgery 25 (5), 421-426, 2016

  The Japanese Congress of Neurological Surgeons

Keywords

• cerebral blood flow
• hyperscanning functional MRI
• social cognition
• development
• joint attention

Details

• CRID: 1390001204405696768
• NII Article ID: 130005153207
• DOI: 10.7887/jcns.25.421
• ISSN: 21873100
• ISSN: 0917950X
• Web Site: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jcns/25/5/25_421/_pdf
• Web Site: https://search.jamas.or.jp/link/ui/2016253620
• Text Lang: ja
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed