MHenS/M-BIC lecture: Anne-Marie Brouwer

Monitoring attention though interpersonal physiological synchrony

Abstract

Continuous and implicit measures of individuals’ attention would be useful for a range of application. Brain responses can tell us about individuals’ level and focus of attention, but it is not straightforward to retrieve this information in real life scenarios. In this talk, I will discuss research showing that the degree to which EEG signals vary in a similar way over time between individuals is associated with attentional engagement. Our findings that this also holds for other physiological signals (heart rate and skin conductance), under various real-life or life-like circumstances, and that it predicts subsequent behavior, make interpersonal physiological synchrony a promising marker of attention for applied settings as well as ecologically valid research.