The relationship between stability of interpersonal coordination and inter-brain EEG synchronization during anti-phase tapping

Inter-brain synchronization is enhanced when individuals perform rhythmic interpersonal coordination tasks, such as playing instruments in music ensembles. Experimentally, synchronization has been shown to correlate with the performance of joint tapping tasks. However, it is unclear whether inter-brain synchronization is related to the stability of interpersonal coordination represented as the standard deviation of relative phase (SDRP). In this study, we simultaneously recorded electroencephalograms of two paired individuals during anti-phase tapping in three interactive tapping conditions: slow (reference inter-tap interval [ITI]: 0.5 s), fast (reference ITI: 0.25 s), and free (preferred ITI), and pseudo tapping where each participant tapped according to the metronome sounds without interaction. We calculated the inter-brain synchronization between pairs of six regions of interest (ROI): frontal, central, left/right temporal, parietal, and occipital regions. During the fast tapping, the inter-brain synchronization significantly increased in multiple ROI pairs including temporoparietal junction in comparison to pseudo tapping. Synchronization between the central and left-temporal regions was positively correlated with SDRP in the theta in the fast condition. These results demonstrate that inter-brain synchronization occurs when task requirements are high and increases with the instability of the coordination.