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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 12, 2025

Inter-Brain Synchrony in Open-Ended Collaborative Learning: An fNIRS-Hyperscanning Study

Inter-Brain Synchrony in Open-Ended Collaborative Learning: An fNIRS-Hyperscanning Study

Published on: July 21, 2021

Higher-order and distributed synergistic functional interactions encode information gain in goal-directed learning.

Etienne Combrisson¹, Ruggero Basanisi^1,2, Matteo Neri¹

¹Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone UMR 7289, Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, 13005, Marseille, France.

Nature Communications

|August 5, 2025

Summary

This study reveals how the brain encodes learning signals through synergistic neural interactions. Information gain is processed across multiple brain regions and broadcast to prefrontal reward circuits.

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Published on: June 30, 2020

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Science

Background:

Goal-directed learning involves distributed neural circuits in the prefrontal, parietal, and temporal cortices.
The specific role of cortico-cortical functional interactions in encoding learning signals is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how neural interactions encode learning signals.
To clarify the role of cortico-cortical functional interactions in goal-directed learning.

Main Methods:

Integrated information dynamics analysis with magnetoencephalography (MEG).
Examined the representation and interaction of learning signals across cortical regions.

Main Results:

Information gain is represented in visual, parietal, lateral prefrontal, and ventromedial/orbital prefrontal cortices.
Cortico-cortical interactions synergistically encode information gain at pairwise and higher-order levels.
Higher-order interactions involve long-range relationships centered in ventromedial and orbitofrontal cortices, broadcasting information gain.

Conclusions:

Information gain is encoded via synergistic and higher-order functional interactions.
Ventromedial and orbitofrontal cortices act as key hubs for broadcasting information gain.
These interactions are crucial for transmitting learning information to prefrontal reward circuits.