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Frustration reduces interpersonal competition through dynamic interpersonal neural synchronization in dyads.
Jingyue Liu1,2, Yujia Meng1, Chenyu Zhang1
1School of Psychology and Mental Health, Hebei Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Brain Science, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, China.
Communications Biology
|June 27, 2026
Summary
Frustration decreases willingness to compete by altering brain activity. Increased neural synchronization in specific brain regions dynamically reduces competition, especially in leader-follower dynamics.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Frustration impacts social interactions and competitive behavior.
- The neural basis for how frustration affects competitive willingness is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the dynamic neural mechanisms underlying frustration's effect on competitive willingness.
- To explore how interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) changes during competitive tasks after frustration.
Main Methods:
- Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning was used to record brain activity in dyads.
- Participants completed a frustration task followed by a competitive task.
- Granger causality analysis was employed to examine directional influence between participants.
Main Results:
- Frustration progressively reduced competitive willingness.
- Increased INS was observed in the frontopolar cortex (FPC) during the middle stage and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during the late stage.
- FPC INS mediated frustration's impact on performance, with stronger leader-to-follower influence.
Conclusions:
- Frustration enhances cognitive control (FPC INS) and inference of intentions (dlPFC INS), dynamically reducing competition.
- Distinct neural patterns of interpersonal competition under frustration were identified.
- Role differences in leader-follower dynamics were influenced by frustration task performance.
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