Learning about social interaction by studying dancing

Dancing fluidly with another involves social coordination. This skill entails aligning movements with others while also processing dynamic sensory information, like sounds and visuals. In a new JNeurosci paper, Félix Bigand and Giacomo Novembre, from the Italian Institute of Technology, Rome, and colleagues report their findings on how the brain drives social coordination during dance.  

The researchers recruited pairs of inexperienced dancers and recorded their brain activity, whole-body movements, and muscle activity as they danced to the same or different songs. The researchers also manipulated whether dancers could or could not see each other. These methods unveiled distinct neural signals for music processing, self-generated movements, movements generated by following a partner, and social coordination. Neural signals for social coordination that enabled synchronized movements between people occurred only when dancers were moving to the same song and could see each other. Says Bigand, “What was perhaps most peculiar was we found that out of the 15 different movements we recorded, the brain was most sensitive to bouncing or flexing of the knees [during social coordination]. This was strange because bouncing had relatively weak amplitudes [or strength] compared to most of the other movements. For the brain to respond more to a weaker movement, like bounce, suggests it has a unique role in social coordination.”  

According to the authors, this work advances our understanding of social interaction beyond dancing because it sheds light on how the brain supports socially engaging activities while integrating dynamic sensory information. Bigand also emphasizes that the methods used to unravel distinct neural signals for different kinds of sensory information processing may improve the applicability of future preclinical work to reality. 

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About JNeurosci 

JNeurosci was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today, the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact, while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship. 

About The Society for Neuroscience 

The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 35,000 members in more than 95 countries.