Dr Trinh Nguyen (Instituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, Rome, Italy; Website)

Visualizing the invisible tie: Linking parent-child neural synchronization to interaction and relationship quality
Early social interactions are vital for children’s socio-cognitive and affective development. In these early interactions, caregivers use communicative rhythms to facilitate the mutual prediction of actions and intentions, resulting in interpersonal synchrony. This interaction pattern is suggested to become internalized in individual generative models, facilitating the attachment between child and caregiver. Beyond interpersonal synchrony on the behavioral level, neural and physiological synchrony have been shown to emerge in live and dynamic social interactions. I will present recent evidence that these neurobiological underpinnings of live social interactions are related to parent-child interaction and relationship quality. Finally, I will outline the potential implications of this work for future research on the social neuroscience of attachment.

Dr Giacomo Novembre (Instituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, Rome, Italy; Website)

Inter-brain synchrony & social behaviour: correlation or causation?
The simultaneous recording from multiple brains – that is hyperscanning – has led to many reports of inter-brain synchrony among socially interacting individuals. Such states of synchrony appear to facilitate social behaviors such as inter‐personal coordination, cooperation and communication. Can we think of inter-brain synchrony as a mechanism that causally facilitates social interaction? This question cannot be answered by simply recording from multiple brains (hyperscanning). It instead requires causal protocols entailing their simultaneous stimulation (multiperson brain stimulation). I will highlight recent findings and future horizons of this nascent field.

Prof Jens Pruessner (University of Konstanz, Germany; Website)

Species and inter-species synchronisation of heart-rate variability in real-life settings
The parasympathetic influence on heart rate variability (hrv) is dominantly mediated by the vagus nerve, which connects the frontal lobe with visceral organs bidirectionally, and is at the core of several prominent theories (somatic marker, polyvagal, neurovisceral integration). Within synchronisation research, the heart is frequently investigated in various dyads for its possible link to aspects of relationship strength, likeability, and bonding. In three different studies, we investigated the strength of hrv synchronisation in dyads within species (speed dating, blitz chess) and inter species (horse assisted therapy) and its relationship to situational aspects and outcomes. In all studies, we found evidence for the impact of hrv synchronisation being associated with situational aspects, or outcome. In speed dating, the degree of hrv synchronisation was significantly associated with dating success. In a blitz chess tournament, anti-phase synchronisation predicted the outcome of the individual match. And in horse-assisted therapy, inter-species (horse-patient) synchronisation was associated with symptom severity in patients. Together, these findings point to an important role of synchronisation in real-life settings which warrants further investigation.