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

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.