Abstract/Summary

Humans need to interact with others and coordinate their actions with them in some activities requiring cooperation such as team sports or ensemble musical performance. In team sports, coordinated behaviours emerge based on the interpersonal synergies between players under the supervision of a coach. Successful ensemble musical performance requires each player to adjust the timing of his or her own tone onsets. Success in a cooperative task depends on adaptation to unknown dynamics in the interacting environment (e.g. environmental or partner dynamics). This PhD thesis aims to address the issue of instability arising from dual dynamics (i.e. dual instability due to environmental and partner dynamics). We developed a cooperative motor task in which a virtual mass was connected to two cursors controlled by subjects with a joystick or a robotic arm. Humans have a natural ability to interact with others by auditory, visual or haptic feedback. First, skill learning and adaptability were assessed through interaction with an artificial agent model (i.e. expert) in the absence of haptic feedback. Secondly, haptic feedback was integrated into the experimental paradigm, and adaptability was investigated in human-human interaction. How can humans deal with dual instability caused by partner and environmental dynamics within a cooperative motor task? We hypothesized that separation of dual dynamics would result in skill learning. Lastly, an EEG-hyperscanning study was performed to identify the neural signatures of successful mutual skill learning. The pilot EEG study showed the emergence of coordinated behaviour, resulting in mutual skill learning.