Social Brain in Interaction
Principal Investigator: RIITTA HARI
Researchers: Maarit Aro, Liisa Helle, Yevhen Hlushchuk, Sanna Malinen, Lauri Parkkonen, Miiu Saarela
Brain Research Unit (http://neuro.hut.fi), Low Temperature Laboratory, and Advanced Magnetic Imaging Centre (AMI; http://www.ami.hut.fi), Helsinki University of Technology
We study human brain function during social interaction characterizing brain activations accurately in time and space by using whole-scalp (306-channel) magnetoencephalography (MEG) and 3-tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); MEG with its millisecond temporal accuracy complements the millimetre spatial resolution of fMRI.
We plan to study brain circuitries activated while subjects view, try to understand, and react to other persons' motor acts by imitation, counteracting, or co-operation, depending on the pre-set goals and context-dependent intentions; these studies are informative about the motor "mirror-neuron system" (MNS) that supports successful reading of motor-act-based intentions of other persons.
Second, we predict the existence of corresponding sensory mirroring systems and will study them with stimuli that have social relevance and emotional valence, such as faces of patients perceiving pain, unnatural finger positions, and mood-reflecting posture and gait. We expect also the intensity of the sensation in the observed person to be encoded in the observer's brain. Third, we hypothesize that the inferior frontal lobe (Broca's region), an important part of the MNS, serves as an action–perception interface; this hypothesis will be experimentally tested during natural audiovisual speech.
To move from artificial laboratory setups towards more natural experimental conditions we will study subjects during natural viewing and listening of continuous stimuli, comparing similarities across subjects in the reactivity of their brain activations. New tools will be developed so that brain signals can be correlated with the ever-changing stimuli. Our long-term goal is to follow real-time dynamical interaction between two persons.
This work converges information from cognitive and clinical neuroscience and social psychology, taking a leap from the focus on basic sensory functions to the brain basis of dynamical social interaction and intersubjective nonverbal communication; the results also give insight to disorders of social interaction (e.g. in autism and schizophrenia).
Contact: hari(at)neuro.hut.fi, tel. +358 9 451 2959