Neural Noise

fNIRS hyperscanning dataset on modulation of synchrony by social relationship during social touch

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  • A Nature dataset provides fNIRS hyperscanning data on how social relationship modulates inter-brain synchrony during social touch.1
  • The resource is reusable for fNIRS and dyad-based inter-brain synchrony research.1
  • The application is more behavioral/social than BCI but methods-relevant.1 1

Weekly enrichment (2026-07-20)

  • The dataset was published in Scientific Data (2025, DOI 10.1038/s41597-025-06233-9) and comprises fNIRS hyperscanning recordings from 47 female dyads: 24 friend pairs (mean age 19.79, SD 1.70) and 23 stranger pairs (mean age 19.93, SD 1.40).23
  • Friend dyads had to have known each other for at least six months and mutually named each other among their five closest friends, while stranger dyads were randomly paired participants with no prior acquaintance.3
  • During recording, each dyad jointly viewed negative and neutral emotional images under two conditions: a hand-holding (touch) condition and a no-touch condition, allowing a 2x2 emotion-by-touch design.23
  • fNIRS montage followed the international 10–20 system and covered the prefrontal cortex with 20 channels per participant, grouped into regions of interest spanning the superior, middle, and inferior frontal gyri and anterior prefrontal cortex (left and right).3
  • The released data include raw and preprocessed fNIRS signals, trial-by-trial emotional valence and arousal ratings, and an extensive set of trait- and state-based questionnaires, hosted publicly on the Open Science Framework (OSF).24
  • Technical validation using power spectral density analysis confirmed the preprocessing pipeline removed artifacts and noise to yield high-quality signals.2
  • A preliminary validation analysis found that interpersonal touch buffered negative affect (lower reported arousal and higher valence toward negative stimuli during touch versus no-touch) and reliably increased prefrontal inter-brain synchrony during hand-holding.2
  • These touch effects on inter-brain synchrony were consistent across both friend and stranger dyads, supporting measurement stability across differing social relationship contexts.2

Footnotes

  1. https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiX0FVX3lxTFB4XzJoTTdabXB2X2o4NWhWS2o2ME1pMUlxeE9UVTR2VUtuMy1oR0QteDZia0ZaemZsekJSdzlmRmFaN2l0dGtfUm1Pb1lMeDFBcFI3SWY2LW5nOGZnZDNn?oc=5 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-025-06233-9 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41372223/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/a27ns_v1 ↩

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