Hari's group studies brain functions in social interaction

6 April 2006

The "Social Brain in Interaction" research project led by Professor Riitta Hari uses brain imaging to study the activity of the human brain during social interaction. The study uses magnetoencephalography (MEG), which provides temporal resolution, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which provides spatial resolution, to allow monitoring of brain functions that is accurate to the millisecond and millimetre. The study is part of the Academy of Finland Research Programme on Neuroscience (NEURO).

The work combines cognitive and clinical neuroscience with social psychology. The research progresses from studying the basic functions of the sensory systems to clarifying the brain foundation for social interaction and non-language communication. The results are significant in terms of understanding social interaction disturbances such as autism and schizophrenia.

Hari's group aims to study the brain networks that are activated when testees look at, react to and try to understand another person's movements by imitation, verbal response or cooperation depending on the advance objectives. The studies provide data on the mirror-neuron system (MNS), which plays an important role in predicting and interpreting the intentions of other people based on their movements.

"There probably are corresponding mirror systems for sensory functions as well," Hari says, "which we will study using socially relevant and emotional stimuli, such as the faces of patients in pain, unnatural finger positions and body movements that reflect mental states of mind."

"In order to move past the classic artificial experimental settings, we're trying to use more natural stimuli and tasks and to compare the brain functions of different people on the basis of MEG brain cortex rhythms and fMRI activations. The new methods are an attempt to correlate brain activations with constantly changing stimuli. Our long-term dream is to monitor the dynamic interaction of two people in real time."

The group works out of the Brain Research Unit at the Helsinki University of Technology Low Temperature Laboratory (http://neuro.hut.fi) and the Advanced Magnetic Imaging Centre (AMI; http://www.ami.hut.fi).

More information:
- Professor Riitta Hari, hari at neuro.hut.fi, tel. +358 9 451 2959
- The website of the NEURO programme www.aka.fi/neuro

Academy of Finland Communications
Communications Specialist Leena Vähäkylä
Tel. + 358 9 7748 8327
firstname.lastname@aka.fi