ArticleFrontiers in neuroergonomics2021
Prefrontal Inter-brain Synchronization Reflects Convergence and Divergence of Flow Dynamics in Collaborative Learning: A Pilot Study.
Article in Frontiers in neuroergonomics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Intersubject correlation as a predictor of attention: a systematic review.BMC psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Bidirectional information flow in cooperative learning reflects emergent leadership.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Heart rates, facial expressions and self-reports: a multimodal longitudinal approach of learners' emotions in the foreign language classroom.Frontiers in artificial intelligence · 2025Article
- Instructor-learner body coupling reflects instruction and learning.NPJ science of learning · 2022Article
- The Complexity of Remote Learning: A Neuroergonomical Discussion.Frontiers in neurorobotics · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Flow is a highly motivated and affectively positive state in which a person is deeply engaged in an activity and feeling enjoyment from it. In collaborative activities, it would be optimal if all participants were in a state of flow. However, flow states fluctuate amongst individuals due to differences in the dynamics of motivation and cognition. To explore the possibility that inter-brain synchronization can provide a quantitative measure of the convergence and divergence of collective motivational dynamics, we conducted a pilot study to investigate the relationship between inter-brain synchronization and the interpersonal similarity of flow state dynamics during the collaborative learning process. In two English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes, students were divided into groups of three-four and seated at desks facing each other while conducting a 60-min group work. In both classes, two groups with four members were randomly selected, and their medial prefrontal neural activities were measured simultaneously using wireless functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) devices. Later the participants observed their own activities on recorded videos and retrospectively rated their subjective degree of flow state on a seven-point scale for each 2-min period. For the pairs of students whose neural activities were measured, the similarity of their flow experience dynamics was evaluated by the temporal correlation between their flow ratings. Prefrontal inter-brain synchronization of the same student pairs during group work was evaluated using wavelet transform coherence. Statistical analyses revealed that: (1) flow dynamics were significantly more similar for the student pairs within the same group compared to the pairs of students assigned across different groups; (2) prefrontal inter-brain synchronization in the relatively short time scale (9.3-13.9 s) was significantly higher for the within-group pairs than for the cross-group pairs; and (3) the prefrontal inter-brain synchronization at the same short time scale was significantly and positively correlated with the similarity of flow dynamics, even after controlling for the effects of within- vs. cross-group pair types from the two variables. These suggest that inter-brain synchronization can indeed provide a quantitative measure for converging and diverging collective motivational dynamics during collaborative learning, with higher inter-brain synchronization corresponding to a more convergent flow experience.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.