Social pain sharing boosts interpersonal brain synchronization in female cooperation

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Social Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Social pain sharing is known to promote cooperation.
• The underlying neural mechanisms of this phenomenon remain largely unexplored.
• Understanding interbrain synchrony is key to explaining social behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural basis of enhanced cooperation following shared social pain.
• To examine interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning.
• To determine if IBS increases between females after experiencing social pain.

Main Methods:

• Employed fNIRS-based hyperscanning technology to measure brain activity in dyads.
• Utilized the Cyberball paradigm to induce social pain by manipulating ball-catching opportunities.
• Compared IBS in dyads experiencing shared social pain (SP) versus a control group (CT).

Main Results:

• The SP group exhibited significant IBS in the right superior frontal cortex (r-SFC) and left middle frontal cortex (l-MFC).
• The CT group showed no significant IBS.
• IBS in the r-SFC was significantly higher in the SP group and positively correlated with cooperation levels.

Conclusions:

• Shared social pain enhances cooperation by increasing interbrain synchrony in frontal brain regions.
• IBS in the r-SFC is a neural correlate of cooperation facilitated by shared social pain.
• Findings are limited to female participants, necessitating further research on gender generalizability.