On the interpretation of synchronization in EEG hyperscanning studies:a cautionary note

Abstract

EEG Hyperscanning is a method for studying two or more individuals simultaneously with the objective of elucidating how co-variations in their neural activity (i.e., hyperconnectivity) are influenced by their behavioral and social interactions. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of different hyper-connectivity measures using (i) simulated data, where the degree of coupling could be systematically manipulated, and (ii) individually recorded human EEG combined into pseudo-pairs of participants where no hyper-connections could exist. With simulated data we found that each of the most widely used measures of hyperconnectivity were biased and detected hyper-connections where none existed. With pseudo-pairs of human data we found spurious hyper-connections that arose because there were genuine similarities between the EEG recorded from different people independently but under the same experimental conditions. Specifically, there were systematic differences between experimental conditions in terms of the rhythmicity of the EEG that were common across participants. As any imbalance between experimental conditions in terms of stimulus presentation or movement may affect the rhythmicity of the EEG, this problem could apply in many hyperscanning contexts. Furthermore, as these spurious hyper-connections reflected real similarities between the EEGs, they were not Type-1 errors that could be overcome by some appropriate statistical control. However, some measures that have not previously been used in hyperconnectivity studies, notably the circular correlation co-efficient (CCorr), were less susceptible to detecting spurious hyper-connections of this type. The reason for this advantage in performance is discussed and the use of the CCorr as an alternative measure of hyperconnectivity is advocated. © 2013 Burgess.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00881
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
College of Health & Life Sciences > Clinical and Systems Neuroscience
College of Health & Life Sciences > Aston Institute of Health & Neurodevelopment (AIHN)
College of Health & Life Sciences
Additional Information: © 2013 Burgess. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Uncontrolled Keywords: electroencephalography,hyperscanning,inter-brain connectivity,phase locking value,phase synchronization,social neuroscience,Psychiatry and Mental health,Neurology,Biological Psychiatry,Behavioral Neuroscience,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
Last Modified: 15 Mar 2024 08:10
Date Deposited: 07 Feb 2014 10:33
Full Text Link: http://www.fron ... 2013.00881/full
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2013-12-24
Authors: Burgess, Adrian P. (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-0977-8105)

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Version: Accepted Version

License: Creative Commons Attribution


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