Mechanisms of Dynamic Neural Coupling during Face-to-Face Expressions of Emotion

项目摘要 关于在人类社会活动中调节自然动态线索的神经机制知之甚少， 情感互动，虽然这些机制在许多精神和神经疾病中受损。 尽管人们普遍认为，面部表情等社交信号带有明显的，但隐含的，情绪化的， 和社会线索，这些“实时”的途径还没有研究与双脑神经成像技术。 这种未满足的需求主要是由于技术限制，阻止了两个或更多个人的神经成像 在自然互动的情况下。我们克服了这个技术上的“障碍”， 新兴的人脑成像技术，功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）。这种非侵入性 该技术基于通过吸收的变化测量的血液动力学信号来检测活跃的神经组织 与氧合血红蛋白和脱氧血红蛋白相关的光谱。因为探测器和发射器都是表面的 安装在磁头上，没有高磁场，它们对磁头运动相对不敏感， 成功应用于双元实验。这份提案的重点是全面了解 在真实的人际互动中，动态跨脑神经耦合的基础机制。 跨脑神经耦合被定义为两个神经元信号的时间模式之间的相关性。 大脑已经提出，这些匹配的模式表示共享的神经过程，包括动态的 信息交流。然而，共享信息和时间共振的基本假设 特定脑对脑区域之间的模式尚未得到测试。我们率先测试这些假设， 眼睛与眼睛接触作为共享信息的度量，并预测两者之间的动态神经耦合 大脑将随着眼对眼接触事件的增加而增加。面部表情的模仿 一个衡量情绪感染以及大脑之间共享信息的指标。我们进一步检验了这个假设 神经耦合将随着模仿的水平而增加，这也是由于共享信息的缘故。 神经耦合代表两个大脑之间共享信息的假设将提供一个 这是理解动态交互机制的一个巨大进步。这两种方法都包括变量 的情感表达，以测试额外的假设，即内容以及共享的信息可能 影响动态耦合机制。这些研究的结果有望为 研究个体之间的生活和动态互动，并提供基本组成部分， 面对面互动模式的框架。一个长期的目标是了解神经基础的 情感障碍，因为他们目前在临床相关和现实世界的情况。

PROJECT SUMMARY Little is known about the neural mechanisms that regulate natural dynamic cues during human social and emotional interactions, although these mechanisms are impaired in many psychiatric and neurological disorders. Although it is widely understood that social signals such as facial expressions carry salient, but implicit, emotional and social cues, these “real-time” pathways have not been investigated with dual-brain neuroimaging techniques. This unmet need is largely due to technological limitations that prevent neuroimaging of two or more individuals during natural interactive situations. We overcome this technical “roadblock” with recent advances in an emerging human brain imaging technology, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). This non-invasive technique detects active neural tissue based on hemodynamic signals measured by variations in the absorption spectra associated with oxyhemoglobin and de-oxyhemoglobin. Because detectors and emitters are surface mounted on the head, absent a high magnetic field, they are relatively insensitive to head movement and thus successfully applied to dyadic experiments. The focus of this proposal is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms that underlie dynamic cross-brain neural coupling during real interpersonal interactions. Cross-brain neural coupling is defined as the correlation between the temporal patterns of the signals of two brains. It has been proposed that these matched patterns represent shared neural processes including dynamic exchanges of information. However, the basic assumptions of shared information and temporal resonance patterns between specific brain-to-brain regions has not been tested. We pioneer tests of these hypothesis using eye-to-eye contact as a metric of shared information and predict that dynamic neural coupling between the two brains will increase with increasing numbers of eye-to-eye contact events. Mimicry of facial expressions is also a metric of emotional contagion as well as shared information between brains. We further test the hypothesis that neural coupling will increase with the level of mimicry also by virtue of the shared information Confirmation of the hypothesis that neural coupling represents shared information between the two brains would provide a singular advance for understanding mechanisms for dynamic interactions. Both approaches include variations of emotive expressions to test the additional hypothesis that content as well as shared information might influence dynamic coupling mechanisms. Findings from these studies are expected to open a new direction for the study of live and dynamic interactions between individuals, and provide foundational components to a general framework for models of face-to-face interactions. A long-term goal is to understand the neural underpinnings of affective disorders as they present in clinically-relevant and real-world situations.