NeuResonance: Exploring Feedback Experiences for Fostering the Inter-brain Synchronization

Research Background and Problem

• Problem and Challenges: When multiple individuals collaborate on a shared task, their brain activities often synchronize, a phenomenon known as Inter-brain Synchronization (IBS). Studies have shown that IBS is associated with stronger prosocial behaviors, such as enhanced intimacy, trust, and empathy. However, methods to actively enhance IBS through external feedback remain largely unexplored, representing a significant research gap in this field.
• Significance: The ability to enhance IBS has applications in various domains, such as skill transfer between teachers and students, rehabilitation training between doctors and patients, and performance improvement in team collaboration.
• Research Motivation: Although IBS has been shown to occur in many social interaction scenarios (e.g., watching movies together or performing music), most existing studies have focused on observing the occurrence of synchronization. Research on how to actively enhance IBS through the design of external feedback systems is still lacking.

Solution

• Proposed Method:
  1. Design and implement three types of external feedback mechanisms:
     • Visual Feedback: Provide dynamic visual feedback using projection mapping.
     • Auditory Feedback: Use chord sounds to reflect changes in synchronization intensity.
     • Tactile Feedback: Provide rhythmic tactile feedback through wearable vibration bands.
  2. Explore how these feedback modalities dynamically respond to IBS levels during dyadic collaboration.
  3. Conduct real-time inter-brain synchronization measurement based on EEG.
• Innovative Aspects of the Method:
  1. Developed a real-time IBS measurement system combining dual EEG and motion capture to dynamically adjust feedback.
  2. Designed multimodal feedback strategies to optimize feedback delivery from a sensory perspective (visual, auditory, tactile).
  3. Developed new collaborative tasks (e.g., the "Cup-and-Rope Task") to quantitatively test the impact of feedback on IBS.
• Implementation Steps:
  1. Collect EEG data from experiment participants and evaluate IBS values through real-time processing.
  2. Display IBS states using the three feedback mechanisms to encourage further collaboration among participants.
  3. Analyze and validate the effectiveness of the feedback system in enhancing IBS.

Research Results

• Specific Findings:
  1. Auditory feedback had the most significant effect on enhancing IBS, with statistically significant results.
  2. Tactile feedback was the second most effective, showing practical benefits despite being slightly less impactful than auditory feedback.
  3. Visual feedback did not show significant improvement, indicating the need for further optimization in task-specific scenarios.
• Advantages Compared to Existing Solutions:
  1. Provided a multimodal feedback system capable of dynamically adapting to inter-brain synchronization between participants.
  2. Developed new experimental protocols and inter-brain measurement methods (e.g., the "Cup-and-Rope Task") to evaluate the effectiveness of feedback designs.
  3. Revealed specific adaptability and limitations of sensory feedback designs, offering guidance for future research.
• Experimental Results:
  • Overall, conditions with feedback (visual, auditory, tactile) significantly improved IBS levels compared to conditions without feedback.
  • User preferences for different feedback mechanisms varied, with auditory feedback being more widely accepted due to its minimal task interference and intuitive information delivery.
• Limitations and Future Directions:
  1. Personalized Design: There is significant variability in user preferences for feedback mechanisms, necessitating further exploration of personalized designs.
  2. Task Adaptation: Future research should investigate how to optimize feedback mechanism designs for different collaborative tasks.
  3. Multimodal Integration: Combining multiple feedback mechanisms may further enhance IBS effects.
  4. Signal Noise Issues: Motion artifacts in EEG signals pose challenges for real-time processing, requiring more robust denoising algorithms and more interference-resistant equipment.

Conclusion

This study effectively explored the use of external feedback (auditory, visual, and tactile) to enhance inter-brain synchronization during collaborative tasks. Experimental results showed that auditory feedback was the most effective, while tactile feedback also demonstrated high feasibility, though visual feedback requires improvement. The study validated the potential of external feedback to enhance IBS and provided recommendations for designing optimized multimodal feedback systems. The findings have broad application potential and could be further developed in fields such as education, team collaboration, and medical rehabilitation.