Physiological and neural synchrony in emotional and neutral stimulus processing: A study protocol.

Background: As psychotherapy involves at least two individuals, it is essential to include the interaction perspective research. During interaction, synchrony, i.e., the occurrence of simultaneous responses, can be observed at the physiological, neural, and behavioral level. Physiological responses include heart rate and electrodermal activity; neural markers can be measured using electroencephalogram. Emotionally arousing stimuli are allocated more attentional resources (motivated attention), which is reflected in physiological activation and brain potentials. Here we present a protocol for a pilot study implementing a new research methodology, and replication of the motivated attention to emotion effect in in dyads. There is evidence that higher synchrony is associated with more positive (therapeutic) relationships. Thus, the secondary outcome will be the association between physiological and neural synchrony and subjective ratings.

Methods And Design: Individuals (18-30 years) will participate in same-sex pairs in two experiments. In the first experiment (triadic interaction), both participants attentively watch unpleasant, neutral and pleasant pictures, and read/listen to standardized scripts (unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant, respectively) for the imagination task. In the second experiment, participants will read out three scripts (unpleasant, neutral, pleasant) to each other, followed by a joint imagination period. Stimuli will be presented in counterbalanced orders. After each picture and imagination, participants rate their subjective arousal and valence. In the beginning and in the end of the procedure, dyads rate their relationship, sympathy, and bonds (Working Alliance Inventory subscale). Heart rate, electrodermal activity and electroencephalogram will be continuously measured during both experiments using portable devices (EcgMove4 and EdaMove4, nine-channel B-Alert X-Series mobile-wireless EEG). Synchrony analyses will include the dual electroencephalography analysis pipeline, correlational analyses and Actor-Partner Interdependence Models.

Discussion: The present study protocol provides an experimental approach to investigate interpersonal synchrony during emotion processing, allowing for the establishment of research methods in a pilot study, which can later be translated into real-life psychotherapy research. In the future, fundamental understanding of such mechanisms in dyadic interactions is essential in order to promote therapeutic relationships, and thus, treatment effectiveness and efficiency.