“Stay Tuned”: Inter-Individual Neural Synchronization During Mutual Gaze and Joint Attention

TLDR

Eye contact serves as a communicative link that facilitates joint attention, and spontaneous brain activity may synchronize across individuals during such contact. The study aimed to determine whether inter‑individual neural synchronization occurs during eye contact and joint attention. Simultaneous fMRI was performed on adult pairs while they maintained baseline eye contact and engaged in real‑time gaze exchange, and residual time‑course correlations were analyzed after modeling task effects. Averted gaze activated bilateral occipital pole, right posterior superior temporal sulcus, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, partner‑directed gaze engaged the left intraparietal sulcus, and residual correlation analysis revealed stronger right inferior frontal gyrus synchrony in paired subjects, suggesting its role in shared intention during eye contact.

Abstract

Eye contact provides a communicative link between humans, prompting joint attention. As spontaneous brain activity may have an important role in coordination of neuronal processing within the brain, their inter-subject synchronization may occur during eye contact. To test this, we conducted simultaneous functional MRI in pairs of adults. Eye contact was maintained at baseline while the subjects engaged in real-time gaze exchange in a joint attention task. Averted gaze activated the bilateral occipital pole extending to the right posterior superior temporal sulcus, the dorso-medial prefrontal cortex, and bilateral inferior frontal gyrus. Following a partner's gaze towards an object activated the left intraparietal sulcus. After all task-related effects were modeled out, inter-individual correlation analysis of residual time-courses was performed. Paired subjects showed more prominent correlations than non-paired subjects in the right inferior frontal gyrus, suggesting that this region is involved in sharing intention during eye contact that provides the context for joint attention.