You, me, and us: Maintaining self-other distinction enhances coordination, agency, and affect

Merle T Fairhurst; Ana Tajadura-Jiménez; Peter E Keller; Ophelia Deroy

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108253

You, me, and us: Maintaining self-other distinction enhances coordination, agency, and affect

iScience. 2023 Oct 28;26(12):108253. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108253. eCollection 2023 Dec 15.

Authors

Merle T Fairhurst^{1

2}, Ana Tajadura-Jiménez^{3

4}, Peter E Keller^{5

6}, Ophelia Deroy^{2

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI), Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
² Munich Centre for Neuroscience, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.
³ i_mBODY Lab, DEI Interactive Systems Group, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain.
⁴ UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC), University College London, London, United Kingdom.
⁵ The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.
⁶ Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus, Denmark.
⁷ Faculty of Philosophy, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.
⁸ Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London, London, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Coordinating our actions with others changes how we behave and feel. Here, we provide evidence that interacting with others rests on a balance between self-other integration and segregation. Using a group walking paradigm, participants were instructed to synchronize with a metronome while listening to the sounds of 8 virtual partners. By manipulating the similarity and synchronicity of the partners' steps to the participant's own, our novel auditory task disentangles the effects of synchrony and self-other similarity and examines their contribution to both collective and individual awareness. We measured temporal coordination (step timing regularity and synchrony with the metronome), gait patterns, and subjective reports about sense of self and group cohesion. The main findings show that coordination is best when participants hear distinct but synchronous virtual others, leading to greater subjective feelings of agency, strength, dominance, and happiness.

Keywords: Cognitive neuroscience; Neuroscience.