A friend in need is a friend indeed: Acute tandem rope skipping enhances inter-brain synchrony of socially avoidant individuals

Xinmei Deng; Yangdi Chen; Kexin Chen; Sebastian Ludyga; Zhihao Zhang; Boris Cheval; Weijia Zhu; Jianyu Chen; Toru Ishihara; Meijun Hou; Yangping Gao; Keita Kamijo; Qian Yu; Charles H Hillman; Arthur F Kramer; Kirk I Erickson; Anthony G Delli Paoli; Terry McMorris; Markus Gerber; Jin Kuang; Zhihui Cheng; Dominika Pindus; Olivier Dupuy; Matthew Heath; Fabian Herold; Liye Zou

doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2024.106205

A friend in need is a friend indeed: Acute tandem rope skipping enhances inter-brain synchrony of socially avoidant individuals

Brain Cogn. 2024 Oct:180:106205. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2024.106205. Epub 2024 Jul 24.

Authors

Xinmei Deng¹, Yangdi Chen², Kexin Chen², Sebastian Ludyga³, Zhihao Zhang², Boris Cheval⁴, Weijia Zhu², Jianyu Chen², Toru Ishihara⁵, Meijun Hou², Yangping Gao², Keita Kamijo⁶, Qian Yu⁷, Charles H Hillman⁸, Arthur F Kramer⁹, Kirk I Erickson¹⁰, Anthony G Delli Paoli¹¹, Terry McMorris¹², Markus Gerber³, Jin Kuang², Zhihui Cheng², Dominika Pindus¹³, Olivier Dupuy¹⁴, Matthew Heath¹⁵, Fabian Herold¹⁶, Liye Zou¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China; The Shenzhen Humanities & Social Sciences Key Research Bases of the Center for Mental Health, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
² School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
³ Department of Sport, Exercise and Health, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁴ Department of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, Ecole Normale Supérieure Rennes, Bruz, France; Laboratory VIPS2, University of Rennes, Rennes, France.
⁵ Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan.
⁶ Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chukyo University, Nagoya 466-8666, Japan.
⁷ Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau.
⁸ Center for Cognitive and Brain Health, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Department of Physical Therapy, Movement, & Rehabilitation Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
⁹ Center for Cognitive and Brain Health, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA.
¹⁰ AdventHealth Research Institute, Neuroscience, Orlando, FL, 32101; Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15260.
¹¹ Department of Kinesiology and Health, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, USA.
¹² Department Sport and Exercise Science, Institute for Sport, University of Chichester, College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 6PE, United Kingdom.
¹³ Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA; Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
¹⁴ Laboratory MOVE (EA 6314), Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France; School of Kinesiology and Physical Activity Science (EKSAP), Faculty of Medicine. University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada.
¹⁵ School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London ON N6A 3K7, Canada; Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging, University of Western Ontario, London ON, N6A 3K7, Canada; Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Western Ontario, London ON, N6A 3K7, Canada.
¹⁶ Research Group Degenerative and Chronic Diseases, Movement, Faculty of Health Sciences Brandenburg, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany.
¹⁷ School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China; Body-Brain-Mind Laboratory, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39053200
DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2024.106205

Abstract

Team-based physical activity (PA) can improve social cognition; however, few studies have investigated the neurobiological mechanism underlying this benefit. Accordingly, a hyper-scanning protocol aimed to determine whether the interbrain synchrony (IBS) is influenced by an acute bout of team-based PA (i.e., tandem rope skipping). Specifically, we had socially avoidant participants (SOA, N=15 dyads) and their age-matched controls (CO, N=16 dyads) performed a computer-based cooperative task while EEG was recorded before and after two different experimental conditions (i.e., 30-min of team-based PA versus sitting). Phase locking value (PLV) was used to measure IBS. Results showed improved frontal gamma band IBS after the team-based PA compared to sitting when participants received successful feedback in the task (M_skipping = 0.016, M_sittting = -0.009, p = 0.082, η_p² = 0.387). The CO group showed a larger change in frontal and central gamma band IBS when provided failure feedback in the task (M_skipping = 0.017, M_sittting = -0.009, p = 0.075, η_p² = 0.313). Thus, results suggest that socially avoidant individuals may benefit from team-based PA via improved interbrain synchrony. Moreover, our findings deepen our understanding of the neurobiological mechanism by which team-based PA may improve social cognition among individuals with or without social avoidance.

Keywords: Brain activity; Cognition; Lifestyle; Physical exercise; Social function.

MeSH terms

Adult
Brain / physiology
Cooperative Behavior
Electroencephalography* / methods
Exercise / physiology
Female
Friends
Gamma Rhythm / physiology
Humans
Male
Social Cognition
Young Adult