Venue: Venice International University, Venice, San Servolo, Italy
Organised by the Munich Interactive Intelligence Initiative (Mi3), LMU Munich, and Venice International University, this three-day workshop focuses on the following question: “What do we learn from studying interbrain synchrony that other analysis approaches to hyperscanning data do not offer?”
A recurring observation across two decades of hyperscanning is that the brain activity of interacting people tends to synchronise. Yet the field has not settled what that synchrony is and what it may contribute to human cognition. Is interbrain synchrony a consequence of shared input, and a downstream reflection of the fact that people are attending to the same thing? Is it the implementation-level footprint of a genuine interpersonal process that would correspond to mutual modelling? Does it do causal work in its own right by facilitating or enforcing coordination?
Open call
A limited number of places are open to PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and PIs. Selected contributors will present a poster, and a subset will additionally be offered a five-minute spotlight talk within one of the main sessions. A single submission is considered for both formats.
We welcome three kinds of contribution and are equally interested in all of them:
• Empirical: human or animal studies bearing on the origins, correlates or consequences of interbrain coupling.
• Methodological: measurement, preprocessing, control conditions, or the validation of synchrony metrics.
• Computational or theoretical: formal models, simulation work, or conceptual analysis of what synchrony could be and what would count as evidence for it.
Work that is critical of the construct is as welcome as work that supports it. Null results, failed replications, and analyses showing that a reported effect is explained by shared input or by behavioural coordination bear directly on the meeting’s question and will be assessed on the same footing as positive findings.
Costs and support
The meeting is free of charge thanks to the contribution of the Volkswagen Stiftung Co-Sense project. Early-career researchers need to arrange their own travel and accommodation.
How to apply
Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, a short statement of how your work bears on the guiding question above, and whether your contribution is primarily empirical, methodological, or computational and theoretical. Decisions will be communicated in a couple of weeks. Please register and apply here: https://sites.google.com/view/venice-synchrony-workshop/home