AI Insight
This study investigated how the brain distinguishes between self-generated and other-generated sounds during coordinated activities. Using dual-EEG recordings and frequency tagging techniques with 25 pairs of participants, researchers found that coordination improved when individuals produced distinct sounds and had clear leadership roles, which facilitated neural processing especially in the right hemisphere. The findings reveal that the brain employs lateralized mechanisms to prevent confusion between one's own actions and those of others during auditory-based social interactions.
Why it matters
These results provide insight into the neural basis of interpersonal coordination in activities like music performance and sports, and could inform therapeutic approaches for disorders affecting social interaction and coordination. Understanding how the brain separates self from other during real-time auditory tasks may help develop interventions for conditions where this distinction is impaired.
Understand the Science
by Manuel Varlet, Tomas Lenc, Sylvie Nozaradan, David Poeppel, Peter E. Keller
Coordinating actions with others is essential for successful social interaction. Such coordination, as in sports and musical performances, often relies on sound, requiring the brain to process and integrate acoustic information related to the actions of ‘self’ and ‘other’ while maintaining sufficient distinction between them. However, such self-other differentiation can be challenged during real-world auditory interactions due to self and other signals being mixed when arriving at the eardrum, creating the potential for agency confusion and impaired coordination. Here we combined dual-EEG and frequency tagging techniques to investigate the behavioural and brain mechanisms supporting the self-other distinction during a joint auditory-motor synchronisation task. Twenty-five dyads synchronised self-paced, finger pressure-controlled continuous sound modulations. The results revealed better synchronisation when participants were associated with distinct sounds (different frequency and brightness) and designated leadership roles, facilitating the processing of self and other information and their separation at both peripheral and central levels. The results also indicated that this neural facilitation was stronger in the right hemisphere than the left, as well as for self than other, suggesting critical roles of spectral information and control over one’s own actions for auditory self-other distinction and coordination. These findings highlight complementary behavioural and brain mechanisms compensating for self-other masking inherent to auditory interactions, opening new avenues to understanding interpersonal coordination and its disorders.