how non-verbalcommunication changes when participants are engaged while interacting in a videoconference call and while interacting in person

In the past decade, videoconference technology has drastically changed people's social interaction both in the work place and in personal life. The Covid-19 pandemic further forced this change to a point where remote-work is widely adopted. In this context, understanding how people adapt their behaviour in this situation to effectively communicate is extremely important. Human face-to-face social interactions are not based only on verbal communication, but they are also heavily influenced by non-verbal social signals (e.g. eye gaze, facial expression etc.) which are essential for effective communication. In this context, this project will study how non-verbal communication changes when participants are engaged while interacting in a videoconference call (using zoom platform) and while interacting in-person. In both situations, participants will perform two tasks: the director task and the mental rotation task. Participants brain activity will be measured using a neuroimaging technique called fNIRS in a hyper-scanning settings (i.e. acquire simultaneously the brain signal from two or more participants) throughout the experiment. We will also record eye movements and facial motions. First, we will analyse the non-verbal signal,eye gaze and facial motions, separately for the two tasks and for each participant. Then, we will analyse cross-brain synchrony using the recently formulated "xGLM" model, which models the brain activity of a participant in terms of her/him behaviour, physiological data and the partner's brain activity, behaviour and physiological data. The outcome of our project will be: first, the high ecological settings of our experiment in conjunction with advanced analysis will allow us to understand how social signals are different between videocall and in-person interaction while completing tasks, and to examine which brain systems are recruited by this shared experience. Second, fromunderstanding the mechanism behind these interactions, we will be able to develop new practical guidelines forbetter online communication.