FNIRS insights into intergenerational relationship development
Poster No:
659
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Ryssa Moffat1, Guillaume Dumas2,3, Emily Cross1
Institutions:
1Professorship for Social Brain Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Zürich, 2CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, Montreal, Quebec, 3Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Guillaume Dumas
CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, Department of Psychiatry|Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute
Montreal, Quebec|Montreal, Quebec, Canada
CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, Department of Psychiatry|Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute
Montreal, Quebec|Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Introduction:
Greater loneliness predicts poor mental and physical health across the lifespan, though loneliness is most prevalent in young adults and seniors (WHO, 2021). Intervention studies demonstrate that repeated social interactions involving meaningful activity can build social connections and reduce loneliness (Rubin et al., 2015). Patterns of brain and cardiac activity are believed to align more closely between friends than strangers (Schilbach & Redcay, 2024). However, the dearth of longitudinal studies means we know little about the neurophysiological changes that underscore incremental reductions in loneliness and budding social connections (Moffat et al., 2024). Insight into such changes within pairs of the same and different generations will be instrumental in shaping social programs, as well as the funding and policy supporting such programs. This preregistered study examines changes in interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) and cardiac synchrony (CS) between members of the same and different generations across repeated encounters.
Methods:
61 pairs comprising participants from the same generation (SGen; both aged 18-35; n = 30) or different generations (IGen; one aged 18-35, other aged 69+; n = 31) completed 6 weekly collaborative art sessions together. At each session, participants drew alone and together with oil pastels and completed loneliness and social closeness scales. We recorded brain activity over 4 regions of interest (ROIs; bilateral inferior frontal gyri [IFG], temporoparietal junctions [TPJ]) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), subsequently extracted the cardiac component from the fNIRS signal. We calculated INS between all ROI-pairs using wavelet-transform coherence (Nguyen et al., 2021) and CS using intersubject correlation (Jones, 2024) for real pairs, as well as pseudo-pairs who never interacted. We fit Bayesian multilevel models with weakly informed priors (McElreath, 2020). Our findings reflect the posterior distributions and comparisons thereof (as such, we do not report p-values). We use 'substantial' to indicate that the posterior distributions of INS/CS for real and pseudo pairs do not overlap.
·Experimental procedure for each session (n = 366 sessions).
Results:
Participants reported reduced loneliness and greater feelings of social closeness across the six sessions. INS drawing alone: SGen pairs showed substantial INS between the left IFGs, with right IFG-left TPJ showing a positive association with social closeness. IGen pairs showed no substantial INS in any ROI-pairs, though INS was positively associated to loneliness for left IFGs and negatively so for right IFG-left TPJ. INS drawing together: SGen pairs drawing together showed substantial INS in right TPJ–IFG and right TPJ–left IFG, where INS in the latter was positively associated with loneliness. INS in left IFGs was negatively and left IFG-right TPJ was positively associated with social closeness. IGen pairs showed substantial INS in all ROI-pairs except left TPJ–IFG, and each right IFGs and left IFGs, with INS being negatively associated to loneliness in right IFGs, right TPJs and right IFG-TPJ. CS: We observed substantial CS for both groups while drawing alone and together. CS was negatively associated with loneliness, moreso for SGen pairs while drawing alone, and positively associated with social closness, particularly for IGen pairs while drawing together.
·Summary of findings, including strength of INS alongside visualisations of associations between each INS/CS and loneliness and social closeness.
Conclusions:
We demonstrate that the topography of INS and the emergence of CS differ between same and intergenerational pairs. We also provide evidence that loneliness and social closeness are indexed by levels of INS and CS, whereby the statistical relationships differ based on constellation of generations involved. We have herewith shed new light on neurophysiological mechanisms that underpinning relationship development within and between generations. While these findings offer implications and applications for initiatives combatting loneliness, we suggest future studies consider verbal and motor behaviours.
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Social Cognition
Social Interaction 1
Lifespan Development:
Aging
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural)
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
NIRS 2
Keywords:
Aging
Cognition
Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy (NIRS)
Social Interactions
Other - hyperscanning
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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3. Moffat, R., et al. (2024). Mobile fNIRS for exploring inter-brain synchrony across generations and time. Frontiers in Neuroergonomics, 4.
4. Nguyen, T., et al. (2021). A guide to parent-child fNIRS hyperscanning data processing and analysis. Sensors, 21, 4075.
5. Rubin, S. E., et al. (2015). Challenging gerontophobia and ageism through a collaborative intergenerational art program. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 13(3), 241–254.
6. Schilbach, L., & Redcay, E. (2024). Synchrony across brains. Annual Review of Psychology, 76.
7. WHO. (2021). Social isolation and loneliness among older people: Advocacy brief. World Health Organization. https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/343206/9789240030749-eng.pdf