To sync or not to sync. Behavioral, neural and autonomic correlates of inefficient cooperation

Objective The presence of synchronized patterns during joint actions has recently captured researchers’ attentions on the important effects of cooperation as a social behaviour. Nonetheless, the modifications of participants’ responses during ineffective joint actions still remain to be explored. Also, different compartments should be taken into account following a multi-method perspective. Participants and methods 20 subjects were engaged in a cooperative game where they had to synchronize their responses during an attentional task. They constantly received external feedbacks manipulated a priori in a way to frustrate their strategies and signaling their incapacity to create a synergy, which was even more reinforced by a general negative evaluation halfway through the task. Meanwhile behavioural (reaction times, RTs; error rates, ERs), electroencephalographic (EEG brain oscillations: delta, theta, alpha, beta), and autonomic responses (heart rate, HR; Skin Conductance Response, SCR) were recorded. Results At the behavioural level, results showed a worsen performance after the negative feedback in the form of longer reaction times. Moreover a specific pattern of brain activation was found after the negative feedback, that is an increased right delta and theta frequency bands, mainly involving the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In addition, increased SCR was observed. Conclusion The present study highlighted the contribution of negative emotions in response to failing interactions as a possible factor to explain the data. Nonetheless, in parallel, these results could also be ascribed to a disengagement for shared goal-oriented social mechanisms elicited by frustrating evaluations.