2026 SoNeAt Lab fNIRS Hyperscanning Workshop
September 1st and 2nd, 2026
University of Essex | Colchester | United Kingdom
General Workshop Information
About Us
👋🏻 We, the Social Neuroscience of Human Attachment Lab (SoNeAt Lab) situated within the Centre for Brain Science, Department of Psychology at the University of Essex (Colchester, UK), are very excited to announce another edition of our two-day SoNeAt Lab fNIRS Hyperscanning Workshop on September 1st and 2nd, 2026 in collaboration with Artinis Medical Systems & NIRx.
Workshop Aim
🎓 Our workshop is mainly aimed at MSc and PhD students, PostDocs, and early-career researchers who are beginners or relatively new to fNIRS hyperscanning.
It will provide attendees with the opportunity to present their work to their peers, either by a talk or a poster. Presenting planned, currently running or completed studies is strongly encouraged, although attendance is also possible without presentation. There will be a best talk and poster presentation prize.
Workshop Agenda
📅 Our workshop will introduce attendees to the state-of-the-art of theory on relational neuroscience and interpersonal neural synchrony (INS), provide insights into the latest empirical studies of INS using fNIRS hyperscanning, cover many practical considerations of fNIRS hyperscanning study design and data analysis (including a demo), and give attendees the opportunity for extended hands-on training in fNIRS hyperscanning data analysis including data pre-processing, wavelet transform coherence (WTC) and statistical procedures based on real sample data.
Collaboration with Artinis & NIRx
🧠 Practical demonstrations of data acquisition and analysis will be based on the Artinis Brite system, but applicable to other devices from different manufacturers, such as NIRx.
There will also be a demo of the new Artinis Brite Ultra devices and the NIRx Sport2.
Your Attendance
🌐 Workshop attendance will be possible both remotely and in person.
The first workshop day will mainly consist in plenary talks, which can also be attended remotely. Please note, however, that attendee presentations will only be possible if delivered in person, and remote attendees will not be able to actively participate in the poster sessions. That said, all talks will be recorded and talk recordings as well as poster PDFs made available to remote attendees in a dedicated online repository for asynchronous and extended access.
The second workshop day, which will mainly consist in practical hands-on sessions and demonstrations, will only be open to in-person attendees.
Workshop Venue, Travel & Accommodation
Venue & Travel
📍 The 2026 SoNeAt Lab fNIRS Hyperscanning Workshop will take place at the University of Essex Colchester Campus in the STEM Building. Theory, talk and poster sessions as well as coffee / tea and lunch breaks will be held in STEM 3.1 and practical sessions in IT Labs STEM 4.2A & B. An interactive campus map can be found here.
ℹ️ Information on how to get to the University of Essex Colchester Campus, using various means of transportation, can be found here.
Accommodation & International Attendee Info
🛏️ On-campus accommodation (single room with en-suite bathroom; room only or bed & breakfast) is available starting from £49 per person per night and can be booked here. Additional accommodation options are available at attendees’ discretion in Colchester and surrounding areas.
🌍 For international attendees, please make sure to check the current UK entry requirements, which includes the new electronic travel authorisation (ETA). We also strongly recommend that you arrange a travel insurance for the duration of your stay.
Preliminary Program (subject to change)
| Date | Time | Location | Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 01/09/2026 | 09:00-10:30 | STEM 3.1 & online | Welcome & introduction to relational neuroscience and interpersonal neural synchrony |
| 10:30-11:00 | STEM 3.1 | Morning coffee / tea break | |
| 11:00-12:30 | STEM 3.1 & online | Invited guest lecture Dr Sara De Felice | |
| 12:30-14:00 | STEM 3.1 | Lunch break & attendee poster session I | |
| 14:00-16:00 | STEM 3.1 & online | Selected in-person attendee talks & discussion | |
| 16:00-16:30 | STEM 3.1 | Afternoon coffee / tea break | |
| 16:30-18:00 | STEM 3.1 & online | Practical considerations of fNIRS hyperscanning study design and data analysis | |
| Wednesday 02/09/2026 | 09:00-10:00 | STEM 3.1 | fNIRS hyperscanning data acquisition demo (Brite MKII/III) |
| 10:00-10:30 | STEM 3.1 | Morning coffee / tea break | |
| 10:30-12:30 | STEM IT Lab 4.2A&B | Data pre-processing and analysis session I | |
| 12:30-14:00 | STEM 3.1 | Lunch break & attendee poster session II | |
| 14:00-15:30 | STEM IT Lab 4.2A&B | Data pre-processing and analysis session II | |
| 15:30-16:00 | STEM 3.1 | Afternoon coffee / tea break | |
| 16:00-17:45 | STEM 3.1 | Artinis & NIRx demo | |
| 17:45-18:00 | STEM 3.1 | Best presentation prizes & farewell |
Registration Fees, Participation and Abstract Submission
Registration Fees
💷 Registration fees for the 2026 SoNeAt Lab fNIRS Hyperscanning Workshop are £50 for one-day remote attendance and £150 for two-day in-person attendance.
Selected attendees will be asked to pay the non-refundable registration fee the latest by 30 June 2026. If payment is not received in time, the space will be offered to another person on the waiting list.
The two-day in-person attendance fee includes desktop computer access, materials and catering (lunch & coffee/tea on both workshop days). Attendance will be possible without presentation, but sharing information about planned, already running or completed studies is strongly encouraged. There will be a best talk and poster presentation prize.
Attendance Request and Abstract Submission
✍🏻 Please fill in the attendance request and abstract submission form by clicking on the link below. Deadline is 30 April 2026.
Spaces for attendance are limited and will be based on a selection process by a dedicated evaluation committee. Selection decisions will be sent out by 01 June 2026 the latest.
Organisers
Organisation Committee & fNIRS Workshop Instructors
The organisation committee is lead by Dr Pascal Vrticka – Associate Professor in Psychology (SoNeAt Lab PI, Centre for Brain Science, Department of Psychology, University of Essex). Pascal has worked with fNIRS hyperscanning since 2014 when he was a Postdoctoral Scholar in Allan Reiss’ Lab at Stanford School of Medicine (Palo Alto, USA), one of the first labs to use fNIRS hyperscanning.
Since then, he has published several empirical fNIRS hyperscanning papers in high-ranking peer-reviewed journals including Cortex, Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, Child Development and Developmental Science. Pascal’s fNIRS hyperscanning research includes both parent-child and adult-adult interaction from an attachment theory perspective – most recently as part of his SoNeAt Lab’s CARE and TRIO Studies, some of which include a special focus on fathers.
He is furthermore participating in interpersonal neural synchrony and hyperscanning theory building – most recently by emphasising the potential of hyperscanning for “Relational Neuroscience” – as well as openly sharing sample data and code to help others with data pre-processing and analysis. Pascal has already instructed students and led several fNIRS hyperscanning workshops and webinars in the past, including two workshops at the University of Essex in 2023 and 2025, two lectures for the 10th International Summer School in Biomedical Engineering held at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (Leipzig, Germany) in August 2023 and several webinars for Artinis and NIRx.
The organisation committee is complemented by several of Pascal’s current PostDocs and PhD students who will also serve as the main fNIRS Workshop Instructors, including Laura Mtewele, Anil Karabulut and Ines Rodrigues. They all have ample experience with planning, running and analysing fNIRS hyperscanning studies and data.
Invited Guest Speaker
At our 2026 SoNeAt Lab fNIRS Hyperscanning Workshop, we will have an invited guest speaker, Dr Sara De Felice, from the Department of Psychology at Cambridge University. Sara De Felice is a social neuroscientist, specialising in the dynamics arising between people as they learn from and with others in the real-world. Combining advanced neuroimaging, eye-tracking, physiological and behavioural measures, she models the teacher-learner interaction and how this supports human learning. Her work provides direct insights into educational interactions, and has the potential to inform other types of social dynamics such as therapeutic and teamwork interactions.
Industry Partner
Contact
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us by using the contact form below.
We hope to see you soon!
Contact form
