A hierarchical model for interpersonal verbal communication. Issue 1 (21st November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jiang, Jing; Zheng, Lifen; Lu, Chunming
• Is Part Of: Social cognitive and affective neuroscience. Volume 16:Issue 1/2(2021)
• Page Start: 246
• Page End: 255
• Publication Date: 2020-11-21
• Subjects: hyperscanning -- interpersonal neural synchronization -- verbal communication -- mutual understanding -- interpersonal relationship -- predictive coding; Neurosciences -- Periodicals; Cognitive neuroscience -- Periodicals; Neuropsychology -- Periodicals; 612.8205
• DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa151
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1749-5016

Abstract

Abstract: The ability to use language makes us human. For decades, researchers have been racking their minds to understand the relation between language and the human brain. Nevertheless, most previous neuroscientific research has investigated this issue from a 'single-brain' perspective, thus neglecting the nature of interpersonal communication through language. With the development of modern hyperscanning techniques, researchers have begun probing the neurocognitive processes underlying interpersonal verbal communication and have examined the involvement of interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) in communication. However, in most cases, the neurocognitive processes underlying INS are obscure. To tentatively address this issue, we propose herein a hierarchical model based on the findings from a growing amount of hyperscanning research. We suggest that three levels of neurocognitive processes are primarily involved in interpersonal verbal communication and are closely associated with distinctive patterns of INS. Different levels of these processes modulate each other bidirectionally. Furthermore, we argued that two processes (shared representation and interpersonal predictive coding) might coexist and work together at each level to facilitate successful interpersonal verbal communication. We hope this model will inspire further innovative research in several directions within the fields of social and cognitive neuroscience.