Interpersonal brain synchronization at frontopolar cortices underlies better advice-taking in groups

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Social Psychology
• Decision Science

Background:

• Individuals often seek external advice to improve decision-making.
• Assessing the reliability of advice is crucial but complex.
• Collective advice-taking mechanisms remain under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how groups versus individuals collectively take advice.
• To examine the neural underpinnings of group advice-taking using interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS).
• To determine if group performance differs based on advice reliability.

Main Methods:

• Participant dyads (n=35) performed an advice-taking task.
• Advice was sourced from reliable or unreliable others.
• Interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) was measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning.
• Bayesian reinforcement learning models analyzed learning rates.

Main Results:

• Dyads outperformed individuals when taking advice from unreliable sources.
• Dyads showed higher learning rates for bad advice than good advice.
• Enhanced frontopolar cortex IBS correlated positively with learning rates and dyad performance.
• These effects were specific to unreliable advice and group settings.

Conclusions:

• Groups demonstrate superior ability to discern and utilize advice from unreliable sources compared to individuals.
• Enhanced neural coupling (IBS) in the frontopolar cortex may underpin this group advantage.
• Findings suggest a cognitive-brain mechanism for effective group advice-taking, particularly in navigating uncertainty.