Background Recently several studies in the psychological and social field have investigated the social function of gift exchange as a useful way for the consolidation of interpersonal and social relationships and the implementation of prosocial behaviors. Specifically, the present research wanted to explore if gift exchange, increased emotional sharing, gratitude and interpersonal cooperation, leading to an improvement in cognitive and behavioral performance. In this regard, neural connectivity and cognitive performance of 14 pairs of friends were recorded during the development of a joint attention task that involved a gift exchange at the beginning or halfway through the task. The moment of gift exchange was randomized within the pairs: for seven couples, it happened at task beginning, for the remaining seven later. Individuals’ simultaneous brain activity was recorded through the use of two electroencephalograms (EEG) systems that were used in hyperscanning. Results The results showed that after gift exchange there was an improvement in behavioral performance in terms of accuracy. For what concerns EEG, instead, an increase of delta and theta activation was observed in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) when gift exchange occurred at the beginning of the task. Furthermore, an increase in neural connectivity for delta and theta bands was observed. Conclusion The present research provides a significant contribution to the exploration of the factors contributing to the strengthening of social bonds, increasing cooperation, gratitude and prosocial behavior.

中文翻译：

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当朋友之间的感恩与合作影响脑电图的脑间连通性时

背景 最近，心理学和社会领域的一些研究调查了礼物交换的社会功能，作为巩固人际关系和社会关系以及实施亲社会行为的有用方式。具体而言，本研究想探讨交换礼物、增加情感分享、感恩和人际合作是否会导致认知和行为表现的改善。在这方面，在一项联合注意任务的开发过程中记录了 14 对朋友的神经连接和认知表现，该任务涉及在任务开始或中途交换礼物。交换礼物的时刻是随机的：对于七对夫妇，它发生在任务开始时，其余七对在任务开始时发生。通过使用用于超扫描的两个脑电图 (EEG) 系统来记录个人的同时大脑活动。结果 结果表明，交换礼物后，行为表现在准确性方面有所提高。相反，对于 EEG 而言，当在任务开始时发生礼物交换时，在背外侧前额叶皮层 (DLPFC) 中观察到 delta 和 theta 激活增加。此外，观察到 delta 和 theta 波段的神经连接增加。结论 本研究为探索有助于加强社会纽带、增加合作、感恩和亲社会行为的因素做出了重大贡献。