Narrative alignment: how ways of sharing personal stories modulate brain-to-brain synchronization

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Social Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Sharing personal stories enhances relationships and well-being.
• Counterfactual thinking involves imagining alternative outcomes to past events.
• Interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) may reflect shared understanding during communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how factual (Real-Memory retelling, RM) versus counterfactual (Counterfactual Reconstruction, CF) storytelling affects INS.
• To examine the influence of feedback (monologue vs. interactive dialogue) on INS during storytelling.
• To explore the role of empathy in modulating INS during different storytelling modes.

Main Methods:

• Used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning with 114 dyads.
• Participants retold negative experiences either factually (RM) or counterfactually (CF).
• Dyads were assigned to either a no-feedback (monologue) or feedback (interactive dialogue) condition.

Main Results:

• In no-feedback, RM showed stronger INS (speaker's right dlPFC to listener's left dlPFC/FPC) than CF.
• In no-feedback, CF showed stronger INS (speaker's left TPJ to listener's left dlPFC) than RM.
• In feedback, CF showed weaker INS (speaker's left TPJ to listener's left dlPFC) than RM.
• INS during CF correlated positively with emotional empathy scores.

Conclusions:

• INS patterns differ based on the cognitive and social demands of factual versus counterfactual storytelling.
• Empathy modulates neural synchronization during interpersonal storytelling.
• Neural alignment likely supports a shared workspace for effective interpersonal communication.