Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 12, 2025
Inter-Brain Synchrony in Open-Ended Collaborative Learning: An fNIRS-Hyperscanning Study
Published on: July 21, 2021
Interbrain synchrony attenuation during a peer cooperative task in young children with autistic traits -an EEG
I-Chun Chen1, Hao-Che Hsu2, Chia-Ling Chen3
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Ton-Yen General Hospital, Hsinchu, Taiwan; Department of Early Childhood Education and Care, College of Human Ecology, Minghsin University of Science and Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Insights
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) traits show reduced brain-to-brain connectivity during peer interaction. This hyperscanning EEG study reveals distinct neural patterns in ASD compared to typically developing children.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
Background:
- Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) traits often struggle with peer interactions.
- Assessing social interaction is vital for ASD diagnosis but challenging clinically.
- Hyperscanning EEG offers a novel method to study neural synchrony during social engagement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate brain-to-brain connectivity in young children during collaborative peer interaction using hyperscanning EEG.
- To compare neural synchrony patterns between children with and without ASD traits.
- To explore correlations between interbrain connectivity and ASD symptom severity.
Main Methods:
- Hyperscanning electroencephalogram (EEG) was employed to simultaneously record brain activity in child dyads.
- Participants included 66 young children: 18 typically developing (TD) dyads and 15 dyads with ASD traits.
- Children engaged in a game-like collaborative peer interaction task.
Main Results:
- Children with ASD traits exhibited reduced interbrain connectivity, particularly in beta oscillations (right parietal to left temporal coupling).
- A distinct pattern of full-band connectivity was observed in the right-to-right temporal region for TD dyads, but not for TD-ASD dyads.
- The TD-TD group showed enhanced connectivity post-task, unlike the TD-ASD group, with significant correlations between connectivity and ASD symptom scores.
Conclusions:
- Hyperscanning EEG reveals attenuated and distinct interbrain connectivity patterns in children with autistic traits during social interaction.
- These findings underscore the potential of physiological measures like interbrain connectivity for understanding ASD.
- This approach may inform future etiological and intervention studies in neuropsychiatry.
Abstract:
Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) traits frequently encounter difficulties in peer interaction. Assessing peer interaction performance is crucial but challenging within the clinical diagnostic paradigm of ASD. Hyperscanning, which simultaneously monitors brain activity in multiple individuals, has become a popular tool for assessing social interaction's neural features. The present study aims to investigate the brain-to-brain connectivity between child-dyads engaged in a game-like collaborative peer interaction task via the hyperscanning electroencephalogram (EEG) approach. The final sample comprised 66 young children: 18 child dyads with typical development (TD), TD-TD, and 15 with ASD traits matched to TD, TD-ASD. The study indicated a depressed level of connectivity in the dyad group with ASD as the responder, with a notable decrease observed in the beta oscillation over the right parietal to left temporal coupling between subjects. A pattern that differed from that observed in the TD-TD group was identified with regard to full-band connectivity over the right-to-right temporal region. It was observed that the TD-TD group exhibited enhanced connectivity following the completion of the task, which was not the case for the TD-ASD group. Significant correlations were observed between scores on the ASD symptom rating scale and the selected significant interbrain connectivity index. The application of a hyperscanning EEG paradigm demonstrated that the participating children with autistic traits exhibited an attenuated and apparently distinct alteration pattern of interbrain connectivity in comparison to a control group. These findings highlight the value of physiologically based measures in informing etiological and interventional studies in neuropsychiatry.
