Tetradic Dynamics of Dyadic Sensorimotor Coordination: A Multiscale EEG Hyperscanning Study
- 1McGill University
Abstract
How do leader and follower roles shape the brain mechanisms that support coordinated action between people? This question has therapeutic relevance for conditions such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder, where the capacity for reciprocal social coordination is a defining vulnerability. Here, we propose a tetradic framework and examine sensorimotor coordination in 16 healthy adult pairs (15 included in EEG analyses) using dual-brain EEG hyperscanning and a 2x2 within-subject design crossing Role (Leader/Follower) and Condition (Mirroring/Matching). Mirroring required resonance with a partner's movement; Matching required its controlled transformation. This contrast was designed to dissociate automatic from controlled coordination. Behaviourally, Mirroring produced a robust Follower reaction-time advantage: pooling an independent behavioural-only cohort (combined N=64) revealed a smaller Leader advantage, consistent with role-dependent attention-inhibition gating. At the neural level, tonic power and significant phasic condition clusters were greater during Matching than Mirroring, while role-dependent phasic clusters suggested an anticipatory sequence around Leader responses and post-response gating and rebound around Follower responses. Information-theoretic decomposition identified Leader-weighted predictive information in frontal and posterior perceptual regions, Follower-specific adaptive information across frontoparietal and sensorimotor cortices, sparse Synergy in lateral occipital, fusiform, and paracentral cortices, and Redundancy linking pars opercularis and lateral occipital cortex. These findings characterize tetradic coordination within dyads as a multiscale, role-asymmetric architecture in which top-down predictive control and bottom-up adaptive regulation are functionally dissociable. The tetradic framework provides an organizing scaffold for this dissociation, and the role-specific signatures it reveals may offer candidate biomarkers for clinical populations in whom interpersonal coordination is disrupted.
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BibTeX
@misc{olarewaju2026tetradic,
title = {{Tetradic Dynamics of Dyadic Sensorimotor Coordination: A Multiscale EEG Hyperscanning Study}},
author = {E. Olarewaju and L. Palaniyappan and G. Dumas},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.64898/2026.06.21.732435},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.21.732435v3},
note = {CC BY-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Tetradic Dynamics of Dyadic Sensorimotor Coordination: A Multiscale EEG Hyperscanning Study
AU - E. Olarewaju
AU - L. Palaniyappan
AU - G. Dumas
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/21
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.06.21.732435
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.21.732435v3
AB - How do leader and follower roles shape the brain mechanisms that support coordinated action between people? This question has therapeutic relevance for conditions such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder, where the capacity for reciprocal social coordination is a defining vulnerability. Here, we propose a tetradic framework and examine sensorimotor coordination in 16 healthy adult pairs (15 included in EEG analyses) using dual-brain EEG hyperscanning and a 2x2 within-subject design crossing Role (Leader/Follower) and Condition (Mirroring/Matching). Mirroring required resonance with a partner's movement; Matching required its controlled transformation. This contrast was designed to dissociate automatic from controlled coordination. Behaviourally, Mirroring produced a robust Follower reaction-time advantage: pooling an independent behavioural-only cohort (combined N=64) revealed a smaller Leader advantage, consistent with role-dependent attention-inhibition gating. At the neural level, tonic power and significant phasic condition clusters were greater during Matching than Mirroring, while role-dependent phasic clusters suggested an anticipatory sequence around Leader responses and post-response gating and rebound around Follower responses. Information-theoretic decomposition identified Leader-weighted predictive information in frontal and posterior perceptual regions, Follower-specific adaptive information across frontoparietal and sensorimotor cortices, sparse Synergy in lateral occipital, fusiform, and paracentral cortices, and Redundancy linking pars opercularis and lateral occipital cortex. These findings characterize tetradic coordination within dyads as a multiscale, role-asymmetric architecture in which top-down predictive control and bottom-up adaptive regulation are functionally dissociable. The tetradic framework provides an organizing scaffold for this dissociation, and the role-specific signatures it reveals may offer candidate biomarkers for clinical populations in whom interpersonal coordination is disrupted.
ER -