Special Lecture by Mohammad Shehata will be held

Special lecture by Dr. Mohammad Shehata will be held as follows:

Date and Time: 10:30-12:00 on Nov. 20, 2017
Place: C-204
Lecturer: Dr. Mohammad Shehata
　　　　Project Assistant Professor, “Mind & Brain Lab” / Caltech Shimojo-Lab.

Title: How our brains are linked? – Neural signatures of synchronization during interpersonal interaction

Abstract: Humans are fundamentally social and their interaction is the basis for the creation of various organizations ranging from small groups to large societies. A high social interaction may result in the coordination between individuals starting from simple body movements, as in synchronized footsteps that happens unconsciously when walking together, progressing to more complex synchronization as in sports teams, music bands, or even coworkers. The study of the neuronal substrate of this coordinated human social behavior is still a young field of social neuroscience.

In this talk, we will highlight studies from our lab that used electroencephalography (EEG) hyperscanning as a neuroimaging technique to study two brains simultaneously while participants interact together. In the first study, unconscious fingertip movements between the two participants in a face-to-face setting were used to elicit implicit simple body synchronization. In the second one, two participants used finger tapping to play a music rhythm video game that can enhance falling into a flow state. The flow state is a mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of high focus and control, enjoyment, full involvement effortless action, and reduced self-consciousness and sense of time; a term pioneered by the psychologist Csikszentmihalyi in the early 1970s. Falling into flow makes one step forward to study a real-life coordination situation. We will compare results from these studies and its relation to the available literature on neural synchronization.

Language: English

Contact: Shigeki Nakauchi , Program Coordinator