The Importance of Social Interaction in Neuroscience Research: Moving Beyond Single-Brain Studies

Although teaching is a dynamic and interactive process that involves both teacher-student and student-student interactions, most single-brain studies fail to account for the cognitive participation of different individuals during student learning. This limited approach results in an incomplete understanding of the complex cognitive processes that occur within a single brain (Hari & Kujala, 2009). Furthermore, the degree of interaction between instructional subjects is a critical factor in effective teaching and learning (Cheng et al., 2021; Davidesco, 2020).

Recent advancements in neuroscience methods and techniques have led to the increasing use of portable neural devices to study social interaction behaviors. In the field of neuroscience, emerging research paradigms such as Second-person Neuroscience and Real-world Neuroscience (Matusz et al., 2019; Redcay & Schilbach, 2019; Schilbach et al., 2013; Shamay-Tsoory & Mendelsohn, 2019) enable participants to engage in verbal and nonverbal interaction tasks such as talking, teaching, gaming, and playing in natural settings. Using these paradigms, researchers can analyze the synchronization or correlation of brain activity in two or more subjects simultaneously or sequentially.

Overall, the inclusion of multiple brains and social interactions in neuroscience research provides a more comprehensive understanding of cognitive processes and effective teaching and learning strategies.