Interaction patterns and individual dynamics shape the way we move in synchrony

TL;DR

This study investigates how interaction patterns and individual differences influence group motor coordination, revealing that group homogeneity and visual coupling patterns significantly affect ensemble synchronization.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative analysis of human group coordination, demonstrating that heterogeneous oscillator networks effectively model complex social motor dynamics.

Findings

Coordination depends on group homogeneity.

Visual coupling patterns influence synchronization.

Heterogeneous oscillator networks capture group dynamics well.

Abstract

An important open problem in Human Behaviour is to understand how coordination emerges in human ensembles. This problem has been seldom studied quantitatively in the existing literature, in contrast to situations involving dual interaction. Here we study motor coordination (or synchronisation) in a group of individuals where participants are asked to visually coordinate an oscillatory hand motion. We separately tested two groups of seven participants. We observed that the coordination level of the ensemble depends on group homogeneity, as well as on the pattern of visual couplings (who looked at whom). Despite the complexity of social interactions, we show that networks of coupled heterogeneous oscillators with different structures capture well the group dynamics. Our findings are relevant to any activity requiring the coordination of several people, as in music, sport or at work, and can be extended to account for other perceptual forms of interaction such as sound or feel.