Autistic Traits Modulate Social Synchronizations Between School-Aged Children: Insights From Three fNIRS Hyperscanning Experiments

The current study investigated how autistic traits modulate peer interactions using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning. Across three experiments, we tested the effect of copresence, joint activity, and a tangible goal during cooperative interactions on interbrain coherence (IBC) in school-aged children between 9 and 11 years old. Twenty-three dyads of children watched a video alone or together in Experiment 1, engaged in joint or self-paced book reading in Experiment 2, and pretended to play a Jenga game or played for real in Experiment 3. We found that all three formats of social interactions increased IBC in the frontotemporoparietal networks, which have been reported to support social interaction. Further, our results revealed the shared and unique interbrain connections that were predictive of the lower and higher parent-reported autism-spectrum quotient scores, which indicated child autistic traits. Results from a convergence of three experiments provide the first evidence to date that IBC is modulated by child autistic traits.