A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Sharing the social world via intersubject neural synchronisation
Authors: Lauri Nummenmaa, Juha M. Lahnakoski, Enrico Glerean
Publication year: 2018
Journal: Current Opinion in Psychology
Volume: 24
First page : 7
Last page: 14
Number of pages: 8
ISSN: 2352-250X
eISSN: 2352-2518
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.02.021
Sociability and capability of shared mental states are hallmarks of the human species, and pursuing shared goals oftentimes requires coordinating both behaviour and mental states. Here we review recent work using indices of intersubject neural synchronisation for measuring similarity of mental states across individuals. We discuss the methodological advances and limitations in the analyses based on intersubject synchrony, and discuss how these kinds of model-free analysis techniques enable the investigation of the brain basis of complex social processes. We argue that similarity of brain activity across individuals can be used, under certain conditions, to index the similarity of their subjective states of consciousness, and thus be used for investigating brain basis of mutual understanding and cooperation.