Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Hyperscanning Study in Psychological Counseling

Summary

The protocol aims to provide a detailed description of the methodology for conducting an fNIRS hyperscanning study in psychological counseling. This includes the preparations for the experiment, the procedure for collecting data, and the subsequent data analysis process.

Abstract

Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning is an innovative technique that enables real-time monitoring of brain activity among multiple individuals engaged in social interactions. Researchers in this field quantify concurrent brain activities through the index of inter-brain synchrony (IBS). In psychological counseling research, the use of fNIRS to measure IBS has garnered attention for its potential to illuminate the dynamics of counselor-client interactions. Nevertheless, the field currently lacks a standardized protocol for precisely measuring IBS between counselors and clients, which would facilitate the revelation of real-time interaction patterns during counseling sessions. To address this need, this paper proposes a detailed standardized protocol, outlining the procedural steps for conducting fNIRS hyperscanning in psychological counseling settings, focusing on the acquisition of brain signals, calculation of IBS between counselors and clients, and analysis of lead-lag patterns of IBS throughout counseling sessions. Implementing this standardized fNIRS hyperscanning pipeline not only enhances the reproducibility and reliability of IBS measurements in psychological counseling research but also facilitates deeper insights into the neural mechanisms underlying working alliance. By integrating fNIRS hyperscanning into naturalistic counseling environments, researchers can advance understanding of how IBS correlates with counseling outcomes, potentially informing personalized approaches to mental health treatment.

Introduction

In recent years, using hyperscanning techniques to explore shared brain activities during dyadic or group interactions has become a popular research direction. Researchers often employ electroencephalogram (EEG)¹, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)², or functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)³ to monitor the neural and brain activities of multiple subjects simultaneously. The neuroscience metric of inter-brain synchrony (IBS)⁴ is thus introduced to quantify the degree of brain activity coupling between people with meticulous analysis of the phase and amplitu....

Protocol

All participants signed a written informed consent form before participating and were remunerated with approximately 60 yuan (Chinese currency) after the experiment. The study procedure outlined above was approved by the University Committee on Human Research Protection of East China Normal University (HR 425-2020).

1. Preparation for the experiment

1. Measures included in the study
   1. Adult attachment style
      1. Prepare the revised Chinese version o.......

Discussion

In the present protocol, the specific steps of how to conduct an fNIRS hyperscanning experiment in the natural setting of psychological counseling and how to calculate the IBS between counselor and client, as well as how to determine the lead-lag patterns of IBS across the counseling are described. The detailed operation can help researchers repeat an fNIRS hyperscanning experiment and further research in open science. Some critical issues about the experiment design, experiment conducting, and data analysis are discusse.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Chinese online survey platform	Ranster Technology Company,Changsha,China	The Free version of Wenjuanxing
EEG cap	Compumedics Neuroscan, Charlotte,USA	64-channel Quik-Cap
fNIRS system	Hitachi Medical Corporation, Tokyo,Japan	ETG-7100 Optical Topography System	The NIRSport emitted and collected  near-infrared light at two wavelengths  (760 and 850 nm) at a sampling rate of 10.1725Hz.
MATLAB 2018a	The MathWorks, Inc., Natick, MA	MATLAB 2018a
Swimming cap	Decathlon Group, Villeneuve-d'Ascq,France	1681552	medium size