Time-Frequency Analysis Reveals Pairwise Interactions in Insect Swarms

The macroscopic emergent behavior of social animal groups is a classic example of dynamical self-organization, and is thought to arise from the local interactions between individuals. Determining these interactions from empirical data sets of real animal groups, however, is challenging. Using multicamera imaging and tracking, we studied the motion of individual flying midges in laboratory mating swarms. By performing a time-frequency analysis of the midge trajectories, we show that the midge behavior can be segmented into two distinct modes: one that is independent and composed of low-frequency maneuvers, and one that consists of higher-frequency nearly harmonic oscillations conducted in synchrony with another midge. We characterize these pairwise interactions, and make a hypothesis as to their biological function

Interacting with others: the role of Temporal Contingency and Motor Interpersonal Synchrony in Autism Spectrum Disorder and in Typical Development

openInterpersonal synchrony (IS) is the spontaneous rhythmic and temporal coordination of actions, emotions, thoughts, behavioural, neurological, and physiological process that occurs between two or more people. All the levels of IS appear to have a great impact on facilitating social interaction in the typical population (TD). The synchronization seems to be decreased or absents in the Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), in which the social and communication difficulties are the main traits. The present work investigates Motor Interpersonal Synchrony throughout a meta-analysis of eleven dyadic studies on TD and ASD participants. The aim is to understand if ASD individuals display difficulties in synchronizing within a social context. Furthermore, an experimental paradigm tests if two aspects, the temporal contingency (the closeness between an action and the environmental answer) and presence of engaging and non-engaging social stimuli, interfere with the synchronization process and with the preference for social stimuli. This experimental paradigm involves TD and ASD children and adolescents. Finally, the clinical implications of the Interpersonal Synchrony, of Temporal contingency and Engagement are discussed

Perceived versus actual attitude similarity as predictors of change in interpersonal attraction

The present investigation was intended to identify factors that affect the degree to which interpersonal attraction changes over the course of face-to-face interaction. Participants completed a modified version of Byrne\u27s (1971) attitude questionnaire, the Crowne-Marlowe Social Desirability Scale (1964), and Snyder\u27s Self-Monitoring Scale and were then paired into attitudinally similar, dissimilar, or neutral dyads. Both before and after interacting for 40-minutes, dyads were asked to rate their interpersonal attraction toward their partner. Attitude similarity better predicted post-conversation interpersonal attraction when controlling for pre-conversation attraction than when not controlling for pre-conversation attraction. Social desirability, self-monitoring, and the coordination of vocal activity rhythms were not related to interpersonal attraction

A synchrony based approach for human robot interaction

As psychologists considered synchrony as an important parameter for social interaction, we hypothesize that in the case of social interaction, people focus their attention on regions of interest where the visual stimuli are synchronized with their inner dynamics. Then, we assume that a mechanism able to detect synchrony between internal dynamics of a robot and external visual stimuli can be used as a starting point for human robot interaction. Inspired by human psychological and neurobiological data, we propose a synchrony based neural network architecture capable of selecting the robot interaction partner and of locating Focus of Attention

Spontaneous Behavioral Coordination: the Impact of Achieved and Desired Interpersonal Closeness on Synchrony and Mimicry

The purpose of the present dissertation was to examine the impact of interpersonal closeness and the desire for interpersonal closeness on displays of behavioral synchrony and mimicry, simultaneously. Groups of two strangers (N = 182 participants, N = 91 dyads) were randomly assigned to complete a “closeness-inducing” task where partners took turns asking and answering intimate questions or a comparison “small-talk” task where partners asked and answered less-intimate questions. Additionally, dyads were randomly assigned to complete these tasks in real time over Zoom, or by reading and responding to the task’s questions over text. These tasks were intended to generate varying levels of interpersonal closeness among participants or to prevent participants from feeling close and instead inspire the desire for closeness. Then, all participants, regardless of prior experimental condition assignment, completed a second problem-solving task where their behavioral synchrony and mimicry were measured using multiple methodological approaches. Specifically, synchrony was measured using global impression ratings whereas mimicry for gestures and postural displays was measured using global impression ratings and molecular coding approaches to allow for discriminant and convergent validity analyses. The effects of the experimental conditions on participants’ reported feelings of closeness and the desire for closeness after their first interaction were examined along with the effect of these experimental conditions on participants’ displays of behavioral synchrony and mimicry in a subsequent interaction. Then, collapsing across experimental condition, the effect of participants’ feeling of closeness with their partner after their first interaction on their behavioral synchrony during their second interaction was tested alongside the effect of participants’ desire for closeness with their partner after their first interaction on their behavioral mimicry. Results generally supported that the more participants reported feeling close with one another, the more they synchronized their behavior during a subsequent interaction. Additionally, the less close participants felt to their partner, but the more they desired to feel close, the more participants mimicked their partner in a subsequent interaction. These results are discussed in relation to understanding the differing nomological networks of behavioral synchrony and mimicry and recommendations for future measurement approaches are made

Learning to Synchronously Imitate Gestures Using Entrainment Effect

International audienceSynchronisation and coordination are omnipresent and essential in humans interactions. Because of their unavoidable and unintentional aspect, those phenomena could be the consequences of a low level mechanism: a driving force originating from external stimuli called the entrainment effect. In the light of its importance in interaction and wishing to define new HRI, we suggest to model this entrainment to highlight its efficiency for gesture learning during imitative games and for reducing the computational complexity. We will put forward the capacity of adaptation offered by the entrainment effect. Hence, we present in this paper a neural model for gesture learning by imitation using entrainment effect applied to a NAO robot interacting with a human partner

The effects of dominance on leadership and energetic gain: a dynamic game between pairs of social foragers

Although social behaviour can bring many benefits to an individual, there are also costs that may be incurred whenever the members of a social group interact. The formation of dominance hierarchies could offer a means of reducing some of the costs of social interaction, but individuals within the hierarchy may end up paying differing costs dependent upon their position within the hierarchy. These differing interaction costs may therefore influence the behaviour of the group, as subordinate individuals may experience very different benefits and costs to dominants when the group is conducting a given behaviour. Here, a state-dependent dynamic game is described which considers a pair of social foragers where there is a set dominance relationship within the pair. The model considers the case where the subordinate member of the pair pays an interference cost when it and the dominant individual conduct specific pairs of behaviours together. The model demonstrates that if the subordinate individual pays these energetic costs when it interacts with the dominant individual, this has effects upon the behaviour of both subordinate and the dominant individuals. Including interaction costs increases the amount of foraging behaviour both individuals conduct, with the behaviour of the pair being driven by the subordinate individual. The subordinate will tend to be the lighter individual for longer periods of time when interaction costs are imposed. This supports earlier suggestions that lighter individuals should act as the decision-maker within the pair, giving leadership-like behaviours that are based upon energetic state. Pre-existing properties of individuals such as their dominance will be less important for determining which individual makes the decisions for the pair. This suggests that, even with strict behavioural hierarchies, identifying which individual is the dominant one is not sufficient for identifying which one is the leader

Integration of Action and Language Knowledge: A Roadmap for Developmental Robotics

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.”This position paper proposes that the study of embodied cognitive agents, such as humanoid robots, can advance our understanding of the cognitive development of complex sensorimotor, linguistic, and social learning skills. This in turn will benefit the design of cognitive robots capable of learning to handle and manipulate objects and tools autonomously, to cooperate and communicate with other robots and humans, and to adapt their abilities to changing internal, environmental, and social conditions. Four key areas of research challenges are discussed, specifically for the issues related to the understanding of: 1) how agents learn and represent compositional actions; 2) how agents learn and represent compositional lexica; 3) the dynamics of social interaction and learning; and 4) how compositional action and language representations are integrated to bootstrap the cognitive system. The review of specific issues and progress in these areas is then translated into a practical roadmap based on a series of milestones. These milestones provide a possible set of cognitive robotics goals and test scenarios, thus acting as a research roadmap for future work on cognitive developmental robotics.Peer reviewe

Interpersonal Neural Entrainment during Early Social Interaction

Currently, we understand much about how children’s brains attend to and learn from information presented while they are alone, viewing a screen – but less about how interpersonal social influences are substantiated in the brain. Here, we consider research that examines how social behaviors affect not one, but both partners in a dyad. We review studies that measured interpersonal neural entrainment during early social interaction, considering two ways of measuring entrainment: concurrent entrainment (e.g., ‘when A is high, B is high’ – also known as synchrony) and sequential entrainment (‘changes in A forward-predict changes in B’). We discuss possible causes of interpersonal neural entrainment, and consider whether it is merely an epiphenomenon, or whether it plays an independent, mechanistic role in early attention and learning