Cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying interpersonal action coordination

从把咖啡杯递给朋友的简单动作，到与舞伴跳探戈的复杂活动，日常生活中，人们与他人协调行动的例子比比皆是。很少有研究调查人际协调背后的认知和神经机制；认知神经科学的研究几乎完全集中在单独执行任务的人身上。我的研究的长期目标是了解人们如何同时处理他人的行为和自己的行为，以产生流畅的人际协调。我这项研究的短期目标是调查人们的机制：1)实现准确的计时，这是谈话过程中演讲者轮换的典型特征；2)同时预测自己和他人行为的感官后果；3)监控自己和他人行为的结果，以确保实现个人和共同目标。实现这些目标所使用的方法包括让听者对谈话中说话者轮流之间的停顿时间进行评级(研究计划1)，使用脑电图仪(EEG，用于测量大脑活动；研究计划2)检查人们对自己和他人行为的感觉后果的神经反应，以及调查人们在收到反馈表示他们或他们的伴侣在人际协调中犯了错误后展开的大脑活动的时间-进程(研究计划3)。这项拟议的研究不仅将推进迄今为止假设认知过程运行并可以孤立研究的行动和认知理论模型；它还将对人工智能研究产生影响，因为在理解人类人际协调方面的进步有助于改善人与机器人的交互。此外，拟议的研究将提供许多机会获得高质量的培训经验，以支持学生发展在学术背景下和在更广泛的劳动力中取得成功所必需的关键技能。

From the simple act of passing a coffee cup to a friend to the complex activity of dancing a tango with a partner, everyday life abounds with examples of people coordinating their actions with others. Very little research has investigated the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie interpersonal coordination; cognitive neuroscience research has focused almost exclusively on people performing tasks alone. The long-term objective of my research is to understand how people process others' actions concurrently with their own to produce fluid interpersonal coordination. The short-term goals of my research are to investigate the mechanisms that allow people to 1) achieve the precise timing that is typical of transitions between speakers' turns during conversation, 2) concurrently make predictions about the sensory consequences of their own and others' actions, and 3) monitor the outcomes of their own and others' actions to ensure that both individual and shared goals are met. Methodologies used to achieve these goals include asking listeners to rate the durations of pauses between speakers' turns during conversation (Research Program 1), examining people's neural responses to the sensory consequences of their own and others' actions using electroencephalography (EEG, used to measure brain activity; Research Program 2), and investigating the time-course of brain activity that unfolds after people receive feedback indicating that they or their partner have made an error during interpersonal coordination (Research Program 3). The proposed research will not only advance theoretical models of action and cognition that have heretofore assumed that cognitive processes operate and can be studied in isolation; it will also have implications for artificial intelligence research, as advances in understanding human interpersonal coordination contribute to improvements in human-robot interaction. In addition, the proposed research will provide numerous opportunities for high-quality training experiences that will support students' development of critical skills necessary for their success in academic contexts and in the broader work force.