Unlocking interbrain neural signatures differences during triadic cooperation and competition: Evidence from EEG hyperscanning

Cooperation and competition are fundamental to human social interaction. While recent hyperscanning studies have linked stronger interbrain synchrony (IBS) to successful cooperation, most have focused on dyadic interactions, leaving the underlying neural mechanisms of group-level social behavior largely unknown. Here, we employed EEG hyperscanning to investigate interbrain neural dynamics of triadic cooperative and competitive interactions. Distinct interbrain network patterns emerged in the delta and beta bands, with cooperation showing enhanced frontal-parietal IBS and more efficient network properties. Non-parametric cluster-based permutation tests further identified significant regional differences in a left-lateralized frontal-temporal-parietal cluster in both bands. Crucially, increased delta-band frontal-parietal IBS was closely associated with better group-level cooperative performance. Moreover, classification and prediction models based on delta-band interbrain metrics successfully distinguished interaction types and predicted cooperative outcomes. These findings uncover interbrain neurocognitive traits that reflect specific social behavioral contexts, highlighting the pivotal role of frontal-parietal synchrony and delta-band modulations in supporting group cooperation. Together, our results advance the understanding of the neural basis of triadic social interaction and underscore the potential of interbrain network signatures as biomarkers for decoding and predicting complex social behaviors.