Communication as a Two-Person Neural Process: fNIRS Hyperscanning in Adults with and without Post-Stroke Aphasia
- 1Boston University
Abstract
Communication is inherently interactive, yet most neuroimaging studies examine individuals in isolation. Here, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning to investigate interbrain synchrony (IBS) during naturalistic communication. In Study 1, 13 healthy familiar dyads completed Joint Singing, Joint Reading, and Picture Guessing tasks. IBS was quantified using wavelet transform coherence across bilateral frontal and temporoparietal regions. Joint Singing produced higher IBS than the other tasks in several regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction, and selected effects were greater in true than pseudo-dyads. In Study 2, we applied the same paradigm to five individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia interacting with trained speech-language pathologists. IBS could be estimated in all dyads after lesion-informed channel exclusion, although regional coverage varied with lesion location. These findings demonstrate that fNIRS hyperscanning can capture task-dependent interpersonal neural coupling during spoken interaction and can be extended to communication involving individuals with aphasia. This approach provides a foundation for studying how neural coordination between communication partners relates to functional communication and partner-supported interaction.
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BibTeX
@misc{magee2026communication,
title = {{Communication as a Two-Person Neural Process: fNIRS Hyperscanning in Adults with and without Post-Stroke Aphasia}},
author = {G. Magee and J. Colwell and S. Kelley and Y. Mohammad and Y. Zhang and D. A. A. Boas and S. Kiran and M. Varkanitsa and E. L. Meier and M. A. Yucel},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.28.755138},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.28.755138v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Communication as a Two-Person Neural Process: fNIRS Hyperscanning in Adults with and without Post-Stroke Aphasia
AU - G. Magee
AU - J. Colwell
AU - S. Kelley
AU - Y. Mohammad
AU - Y. Zhang
AU - D. A. A. Boas
AU - S. Kiran
AU - M. Varkanitsa
AU - E. L. Meier
AU - M. A. Yucel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.28.755138
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.28.755138v1
AB - Communication is inherently interactive, yet most neuroimaging studies examine individuals in isolation. Here, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning to investigate interbrain synchrony (IBS) during naturalistic communication. In Study 1, 13 healthy familiar dyads completed Joint Singing, Joint Reading, and Picture Guessing tasks. IBS was quantified using wavelet transform coherence across bilateral frontal and temporoparietal regions. Joint Singing produced higher IBS than the other tasks in several regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction, and selected effects were greater in true than pseudo-dyads. In Study 2, we applied the same paradigm to five individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia interacting with trained speech-language pathologists. IBS could be estimated in all dyads after lesion-informed channel exclusion, although regional coverage varied with lesion location. These findings demonstrate that fNIRS hyperscanning can capture task-dependent interpersonal neural coupling during spoken interaction and can be extended to communication involving individuals with aphasia. This approach provides a foundation for studying how neural coordination between communication partners relates to functional communication and partner-supported interaction.
ER -