Name: group synchronization during collaborative drawing using functional near-infrared spectroscopy
Uploaded: 2022-08-05T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Group Synchronization During Collaborative Drawing Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy at JoVE.com

The authors thank Instituto do C&#233;rebro (InCe-IIEP) and Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein (HIAE) for this study support.&#160;Special thanks to Jos&#233; Bel&#233;m de Oliveira Neto for the English proofreading of this article.

The methodology was approved by the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein (HIAE) Ethics Committee and is based on a procedure for collecting neural data (fNIRS), as well as gaze behavior data, with young adults during a collaborative drawing experience. All collected data were managed on the Redcap platform (see Table of Materials). The project was audited by the Scientific Integrity Committee of the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein (HIAE). Young adults, 18-30 years old, were selected as subjects for the ...

This study aimed to create a protocol using hyperscanning on four brains concurrently under naturalistic conditions. The experimental paradigm used different drawing tasks and the correlation of multiple outcome measures, drawing metrics, behaviors, and brain signals. The critical steps within this protocol are the consideration of the challenges arising from its high complexity and the maintenance of its ecological and naturalistic conditions.
Video observation was key to this study. It&#160;...

Interpersonal interaction behavior is an important component of the process of connecting and creating empathic bonds. Previous research indicates that this behavior can be expressed in the occurrence of synchronicity, when biological and behavioral signals align during social contact. Evidence shows that synchronicity can occur between people interacting for the first time1,2,3. Most studies on social interactions and their underlying neural mechanisms use a single person or second person approach2,4, and little is known about transposing this knowledge to group social dynamics. Evaluating interpersonal responses in groups of three or more individuals is still a challenge for scientific research. This leads to the necessity of bringing to the laboratory the complex environment of social interactions in everyday human beings under naturalistic conditions5.
In this context, the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technique is a promising tool for assessing the relationships between interpersonal interaction in naturalistic contexts and its brain correlates. It presents fewer restrictions on participant mobility compared to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and is resilient to motion artifacts6,7. The fNIRS technique works by assessing hemodynamic effects in response to brain activation (changes in blood concentration of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin). These variations can be measured by the amount of diffusion of infrared light through scalp tissue. Previous studies have demonstrated the flexibility and robustness of the technique in ecological hyperscanning experiments and the potential to expand knowledge in applied neuroscience6,8.
The choice of an experimental task for the naturalistic assessment of the neural correlates of social interaction processes in groups is a crucial step in approaching applied neuroscience studies9.&#160;Some examples already reported in the literature with the use of fNIRS in group paradigms include music performance10,11,12, classroom interaction8, and communication13,14,15,16,17.
One of the aspects not yet explored by previous studies is the use of drawing games that have as the main feature the manipulation of empathic components to assess social interaction. In this context, one of the games frequently used to induce social interaction in dynamics among strangers is the collaborative drawing game18,19. In this game, sheets of paper are divided into equal parts, and the group participants are challenged to draw shared self-portraits of all members. In the end, each member has their portrait drawn in a collaborative way by several hands.
The objective is to promote quick integration among strangers, provoked by directing visual attention to the faces of the group partners. It can be considered an &#34;ice-breaking&#34; activity due to its ability to support curiosity and consequent empathic processes among the members19.
One of the advantages of using drawing tasks is their simplicity and ease of reproduction20. They also do not require any specific technical training or skills, as seen in the studies using musical performance paradigms21,22,23,24. This simplicity also enables the choice of a more naturalistic stimulus within a social context4,9,25.
Besides being an instrument for inducing social behavior in groups, drawing is also considered a tool for psychological evaluation26. Some graphic-projective psychological tests, such as House-Tree-Person (HTP)27,28,29, Human Figure Drawing - Sisto Scale27, and Kinetic Family Drawing30&#160;are used in a complementary way for qualitative and quantitative diagnoses. Their results usually express unconscious processes, giving clues about the individual&#39;s symbolic system and, therefore, their interpretations of the world, experiences, affections, etc.
The practice of drawing makes one think and helps create meaning for experiences and things, adding sensations, feelings, thoughts, and actions31. It gives clues about how to perceive and process these life experiences26. Drawing uses visual codes to allow one to understand and communicate thoughts or feelings, making them accessible to manipulation and, thus, creating the possibility for new ideas and readings31.
In art therapy, drawing is a tool to work on attention, memory, and organization of thoughts and feelings32, and it can be used as means to produce social interaction33.
This study aimed to develop a naturalistic experimental protocol to assess vascular and behavioral brain responses during interpersonal interaction in quartets using a collaborative drawing dynamic. In this protocol, the evaluation of the brain responses of the quartet (individually and the synchronicity between partners) and the possible outcome measures, such as behavioral measures (drawing and gaze behavior)&#160;are proposed. The aim is to provide more information on social neuroscience.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>2 NIRSport&#160;</td>
			<td>NIRx Medizintechnik GmbH, Germany</td>
			<td>Nirsport 88</td>
			<td>The equipment belong to InCe ( Instituto do C&#233;rebro - Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein). two continuous-wave systems (NIRSport8x8, NIRx Medical Technologies, Glen Head, NY, USA) with eight LED illumination sources emitting two wavelengths of near-infrared light (760 and 850 nm) and eight optical detectors each. 7.91 Hz. Data were acquired with the NIRStar software version 15.2&#160; (NIRx Medical Technologies, Glen Head, New York) at a sampling rate of 3.472222.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>4 fNIRS caps</td>
			<td>NIRx Medizintechnik GmbH, Germany</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>The blackcaps used in the recordings had a configuration based on the international 10-20</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>C&#226;mera 360&#176; - Kodak Pix Pro SP360</td>
			<td>Kodak</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Kodak PixPro:&#160;https://kodakpixpro.com/cameras/360-vr/sp360</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cameras de suporte - Iphone 8</td>
			<td>Apple</td>
			<td>Iphone 8</td>
			<td>Supporting Camera</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>fOLD toolbox (fNIRS Optodes&#8217; Location Decider)</td>
			<td>Zimeo Morais, G.A., Balardin, J.B. &#38; Sato, J.R. fNIRS Optodes&#8217; Location Decider (fOLD): a toolbox for probe arrangement guided by brain regions-of-interest.&#160;Scientific Reports.&#160;8,&#160;3341 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21716-z</td>
			<td>Version 2.2 (https://github.com/nirx/fOLD-public)</td>
			<td>Optodes placement was guided by the fOLD toolbox (fNIRS Optodes&#8217; Location Decider, which allows placement of sources and detectors in the international 10&#8211;10 system to maximally cover anatomical regions of interest according to several parcellation atlases. The ICBM 152 head model&#160; parcellation was used to generate the montage, which was designed to provide coverage of the most anterior portion of the bilateral prefrontal cortex</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Notebook Microsoft Surface</td>
			<td>Microsoft</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Notebook receiver of the fNIRS signals</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>R platform for statistical computing&#160;</td>
			<td>https://www.r-project.org&#160;</td>
			<td>R version 4.2.0</td>
			<td>R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>REDCap</td>
			<td>REDCap is supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NCATS UL1 TR000445)</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>REDCap is a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>software Mangold Interact</td>
			<td>Mangold International GmbH, Ed.&#160;</td>
			<td>interact 5.0</td>
			<td>Mangold:&#160;https://www.mangold-international.com/en/products/software/behavior-research-with-mangold-interact.html. Allows analysis of videos for behavioral outcomes and of autonomic monitoring for emotionally driven physiological changes (may require additional software, such as DataView). Allow the use of different camera types simultaneously and hundreds of variations of coding methods.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>software NIRSite</td>
			<td>NIRx Medizintechnik GmbH, Germany</td>
			<td>NIRSite 2.0</td>
			<td>For creating the montage and help optode placement and location in the blackcaps.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>software nirsLAB-2014</td>
			<td>NIRx Medizintechnik GmbH, Germany</td>
			<td>nirsLAB 2014</td>
			<td>fNIRS Data Processing</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>software NIRStar</td>
			<td>NIRx Medizintechnik GmbH, Germany</td>
			<td>version 15.2</td>
			<td>&#160;for fNIRS data aquisition: NIRStar software version 15.2&#160; at a sampling rate of 3.472222</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>software NIRStim</td>
			<td>NIRx Medizintechnik GmbH, Germany</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>&#160;For creation and organization of paradigm blocks</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

group synchronization during collaborative drawing using functional near-infrared spectroscopy

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a noninvasive method particularly suitable for measuring cerebral cortex activation in multiple subjects, which is relevant for studying group interpersonal interactions in ecological settings. Although many fNIRS systems technically offer the possibility to monitor more than two individuals simultaneously, establishing easy-to-implement setup procedures and reliable paradigms to track hemodynamic and behavioral responses in group interaction is still required. The present protocol combines fNIRS and video-based observation to measure interpersonal synchronization in quartets during a cooperative task.This protocol provides practical recommendations for data acquisition and paradigm design, as well as guiding principles for an illustrative data analysis example. The procedure is designed to assess differences in brain and behavior interpersonal responses between social and non-social conditions inspired by a well-known ice-breaker activity, the Collaborative Face Drawing Task. The described procedures can guide future studies to adapt group naturalistic social interaction activities to the fNIRS environment.

The protocol was applied to a quartet composed of young women (24-27 years old), all of them students on postgraduate programs (Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, S&#227;o Paulo, Brasil), with master&#39;s or doctorate level education. All participants were right-handed, and only one reported having previous drawing experience. No participants had a reported history of neurological disorders.
For the scales and psychological test results, two participants (2 and 4) showed high scores for anxi...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Group Synchronization During Collaborative Drawing Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy at JoVE.com

Group Synchronization During Collaborative Drawing Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

The present protocol combines functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and video-based observationto measure interpersonal synchronization in quartets during a collaborative drawing task.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a noninvasive method particularly suitable for measuring cerebral cortex activation in multiple subjects, ...

This innovative protocol is relevant for the study of group interpersonal interactions in ecological settings. It is designed to access differences in brain and behavior interpersonal responses in quartets during different drawing tasks. This protocol offers easy to implement procedures and a reliable paradigm using fNIRS to simultaneously measure the hemodynamic responses of a group of four individuals interacting.To prepare for the study, remove all potential eye distractors from the scene. Turn off all electrical devices such as air conditioning during the experimental condition. Ensure that the room has sufficient lighting for people to observe and draw.Upon setting up, position all fNIRS wires such that they remain stable during the experimental task. Position the quartet on the table two by two so that each individual can observe the other three individuals. To perform the drawing paradigm, which is the social condition, have participants draw the forehead and eye area on the top strip of all the paper sheets.Have each paper represent a fully drawn portrait of a participant. Also have the face of each participant depicted in a collaborative way by their partners. For the connect the dots game, which is the non-social condition, ask the participants to connect the numbers in an ascendant way.Select a commercially available 360 degree scene camera and position it on the table so that the eye and head movements of all the participants can be perceived simultaneously. Check for possible interferences on fNIRS reception. Before fNIRS calibration, start the equipment, check the interface, and set the recording mode.For data analysis, select a synchronized view or analysis platform that allows the transcription and coding of several video contents simultaneously such as the INTERACT software. To refine observational data, set parameters that enable the search for patterns or sequences such as individual gaze behavior metrics, head and eye movement, hand movement, facial expressions, and talking behavior. After analysis, start by downloading the video from all cameras in MP4 format and load them into INTERACT.Segment the video data for coding and further analysis. For data extraction, mark the video sections manually and provide them with codes. Click on Define Codes to create the first tier by dividing the block sections into social and non-social conditions and resting periods.Then create a second tier by dividing the behavioral data from the participants along with social conditions. Observe details and determine drawing metrics by counting the details drawn during the experiment. Use the NIRSite tool to locate the optodes over the PFC regions.Configure the distribution of optodes on the caps such that the channels are positioned above the regions of interest on the head of the participant. Divide the optodes among four participants for the simultaneous acquisition of signals. Before setting the fNIRS apparatus, measure the brain perimeters of the four participants like the distances between the nasion and the inion around the head to determine the cap size of each participant.Then fit the sources and detectors to the cap according to the predetermined settings. Put the caps on the head of the participant and position the cap so that the central midline is at the top of the head. Further ensure that the cap is positioned correctly by measuring the distance between the left and right ear above the top of the head and positioning the central midline at the middle of the measure.Then connect the wires of the optodes to the amplifiers and connect both NIRSport 1 and 2 to the computer. After setting up the equipment, enabled the software to acquire the fNIRS data. Click on Configure Hardware on the menu bar.Select the option Tandem Mode on the hardware specification tab to perform the hyper scanning. On the configure hardware tab, select a montage and check the settings in channel masking, topo layout, and channel setup. Perform an automatic calibration by clicking Calibrate on the display panel.When ready to start the procedure, click on Preview to have a preview of how the signals are being received. Then start recording the signals by clicking on Record. Open the blocks programming software NIRStim and start the presentation of the programmed blocks by clicking on Run.NIRStim will close at the end of the experiment. Stop recording in NIRStar. Close the software and verify the file is saved correctly.This method was applied to a quartet composed of women postgraduate students aged 24 to 27 years. The fNIRS preliminary results showed typical brain activation for participants one, two, and three in both the social and non-social drawing conditions. This was observed in both channels located in the left and right hemispheres, although the activation patterns were distinct.On the other hand, participant four showed atypical brain activation. The oxyhemoglobin signal was significantly synchronized between subjects only during the last part of the task both in the connecting the dots condition and in the collaborative drawing condition. This method can provide insights into neuroscience, art, art therapy, and social interaction research areas in general.

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