Methodological Innovations in TwoPerson Neuroscience experiments using fNIRS to Investigate Brain Function during Online Communication
Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The field of social neuroscience aims to discover associations between brain function and social interactions. In recent years, the use of online tools to communicate has increased massively. However, investigating brain function in the online space using hyperscanning is methodologically difficult and therefore the neural underpinnings for social interaction in this space are under investigated. Additionally, there are inconsistent and unclear methodological approaches in functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) based hyperscanning studies. The implementation and integration of multimodal datasets into suitable analytic methods, consistent pre-processing pipelines and methods of localizing optodes between participants are three of the main areas of concern. This thesis presents the development of a framework to synchronously acquire data from remote locations, a comparison between pre-processing steps on the computation of the inter-brain coupling metric and how different methods to localize optode locations impact the inter-brain coupling. These developments are applied to two neuroscience studies examining face processing and verbal communication using online communication tools. Four fNIRS signals were tested against four pre-processing pipelines. It is demonstrated that the use of the HbDiff signal in conjunction with bandpass filtering and systemic artefact correction provides the best ability to evaluate IBC between participants doing the same task. I compared three methods of co-localizing optodes found that using a Gaussian smoothing kernel provides the best localization of the inter-brain coupling. Neuroscience results suggest that there are differences in social cognition using online communication tools that are different to social cognition during real-world interaction.
Author: Hakim, Uzair
Institution: University College London
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7058319672