Bidirectional benefits: Interbrain synchronization and role-specific neural signatures in interpersonal emotion...

Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) is crucial for social coordination and inherently bidirectional, yet research has predominantly focused on how regulators affect targets, often neglecting the regulator's own experience and the dyadic neural dynamics supporting mutual benefits. This study (N = 68, average age: M = 20.61 ± 1.56, 100% female, collected in 2024 in China) investigated the behavioral and neural mechanisms of bidirectional benefits in IER, examining strategy-dependent (cognitive reappraisal, distraction) and role-specific (regulator, target) neural dynamics using functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning. Behaviorally, cognitive reappraisal induced greater valence improvement for both roles compared to distraction. At the single-brain level, prefrontal regions (frontopolar, left orbitofrontal cortex) and the right Broca area showed distinct activation patterns contingent on strategy and role; regulators exhibited stronger activation during cognitive reappraisal, while targets displayed pronounced right-lateralized activation (right orbitofrontal cortex, right Broca area) during distraction, supporting differing cognitive demands. Critically, multivariate pattern analysis of interbrain synchronization revealed that distributed patterns of neural coordination successfully decoded both the IER strategy employed and, notably, regulatory success for both regulators and targets. The regulator's frontopolar synchronization emerged as pivotal in these predictive interbrain synchronization patterns. These findings demonstrate that successful IER relies on a combination of role-dependent neural specialization and dyad-specific, strategy-aligned interbrain coordination, advancing our understanding of IER as a dynamic, multibrain process facilitating mutual emotional alignment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).