Saltar al contenido principal

Inter-brain synchronization occurs without physical co-presence during cooperative online gaming

Valtteri Wikström, Katri Saarikivi, Mari Falcon, Tommi Makkonen, Silja Martikainen, Vesa Putkinen, Benjamin Ultan Cowley, Mari Tervaniemi

  • Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 21, Helsinki, 00014, Finland
  • Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 9, Helsinki, 00014, Finland
  • Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, P.O. Box 52, Turku, 20521, Finland
  • Turku University Hospital, P.O. Box 52, Turku, 20521, Finland
  • Cognitive Science, Department of Digital Humanities, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 24, Helsinki, 00014, Finland

DOI 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108316

Published 9 Sep 2022

Short summary for very busy people​

  • We investigated cooperative performance during real-time online two-player gameplay using EEG hyperscanning.
  • The participants were physically isolated and could only communicate through on-screen actions controlled by button presses.
  • Momentary performance was linked to gamma synchronization and average performance was linked to alpha synchronization.
  • Synchronization across frequency bands decreased during a playing session, while being elevated in the second of two sessions.
  • The novel paradigm demonstrates continuous measurement of collaborative performance and inter-brain synchrony.