Emergent Leadership Driven by Asymmetric Stability Shapes Learning in Dyadic Motor Coordination

Coordinated actions are fundamental to human behavior. Even without explicit communication, stable coordination patterns and implicit leadership roles can emerge. This study examines the dynamic nature of leadership and its impact on perceptuomotor learning in a dyadic coordination task. Paired participants (dyads) controlled targets using joysticks to produce a novel coordination pattern, which was learned using visual feedback without direct communication over multiple sessions. Results showed that leadership was an emergent property of the system, dynamically shaped by the interplay between individual and system-level stability. At the system level, leadership role transitions modulated the dyads learning, characterized by distinct learning models. At the individual level, leaders maintained overall stability but exhibited occasional bursts of instability to assert control and reinforce coordination. These findings highlight the role of leader-follower dynamics in learning and performance, showing that leadership is both a limiting factor and a facilitator for coordination.