Abstract

Neuroscience research has produced tremendous insight into how the human brain supports learning and social dynamics. Still, laboratory-generated findings do not always straightforwardly generalize to real-world environments. In an effort to bring social neuroscience research out of the lab into everyday social contexts, I collaborate with scientists, artists, and educators to (a) conduct hyperscanning research during naturalistic face-to-face communication, and (b) develop inter-brain synchrony neurofeedback applications to boost social engagement. This approach has allowed us to collect data from high school classrooms, thousands of museum visitors, and therapeutic settings. Taken together, I hope to show that this multidisciplinary approach may provide a fruitful avenue to investigate social interactions outside of the laboratory.