We are proud to present Professor Lauri Parkkonen from Aalto University with a talk entitled: "Two-person neuroscience: Why and how"

31.03.2016 | Hella Kastbjerg

Professor Lauri Parkkonen from the Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Finland is visiting MIB and will give a talk entitled:

Two-person neuroscience: Why and how

Uncovering neural mechanisms supporting social interaction calls for a paradigm shift in neuroimaging. Since ecologically valid interaction typically comprises a unique sequence of complex behavioural elements, traditional neuroimaging settings – where deprived stimuli are presented in highly controlled conditions – are arguably not optimal for probing brain processes that support our seemingly effortless interaction with others. Face-to-face interaction also progresses swiftly, necessitating sub-second temporal accuracy in recording relevant brain signals. Therefore, magnetoencephalography appears an optimal technique for shedding light on the brain basis of social interaction. However, brain signals alone from one interacting person do not necessarily reveal much since in order to analyse these signals, we would need to analyse also the complex behavioural aspect of the interaction. An alternative approach is to record brain signals simultaneously from the two interacting persons using a hyperscanning set-up and then seek for commonalities and predictions within these signal sets.

In this talk, I will argue for time-resolved neuroimaging and for the two-person neuroscience –approach in studying the brain basis of social interaction.

 Relevant recent publications:

Hari, R., Henriksson, L., Malinen, S., Parkkonen, L., 2015. Centrality of Social Interaction in Human Brain Function. Neuron 88, 181–193. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.09.022

Hari, R., Parkkonen, L., 2015. The brain timewise: how timing shapes and supports brain function. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 370. doi:10.1098/rstb.2014.0170

Mandel, A., Bourguignon, M., Parkkonen, L., Hari, R., 2016. Sensorimotor activation related to speaker vs. listener role during natural conversation. Neuroscience Letters 614, 99–104. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2015.12.054

Zhdanov, A., Nurminen, J., Baess, P., Hirvenkari, L., Jousmäki, V., Mäkelä, J.P., Mandel, A., Meronen, L., Hari, R., Parkkonen, L., 2015. An Internet-Based Real-Time Audiovisual Link for Dual MEG Recordings. PLoS ONE 10, e0128485. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0128485

Zhou, G., Bourguignon, M., Parkkonen, L., Hari, R., 2016. Neural signatures of hand kinematics in leaders vs. followers: A dual-MEG study. NeuroImage 125, 731–738. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.11.002