Embodied perspective-taking enhances interpersonal synchronization: A body-swap study

Humans exhibit a strong tendency to synchronize movements with each other, with visual perspective potentially influencing interpersonal synchronization. By manipulating the visual scenes of participants engaged in a joint finger-tapping task, we examined the effects of 1(st) person and 2(nd) person visual perspectives on their coordination dynamics. We hypothesized that perceiving the partner’s movements from their 1(st) person perspective would enhance spontaneous interpersonal synchronization, potentially mediated by the embodiment of the partner’s hand. We observed significant differences in attractor dynamics across visual perspectives. Specifically, participants in 1(st) person coupling were unable to maintain de-coupled trajectories as effectively as in 2(nd) person coupling. Our findings suggest that visual perspective influences coordination dynamics in dyadic interactions, engaging error-correction mechanisms in individual brains as they integrate the partner’s hand into their body representation. Our results have the potential to inform the development of applications for motor training and rehabilitation.