Respiratory synchrony and individual differences causally influence dyadic interpersonal coordination

Wenbo Yi; Caroline Palmėr

doi:10.1111/psyp.70254

PsychophysiologyFeb 1, 2026Animal Behavior & CognitionPeer-reviewed journal article

Respiratory synchrony and individual differences causally influence dyadic interpersonal coordination

Wenbo Yi iD, Caroline Palmėr iD

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Abstract

Human interpersonal coordination can yield synchronization at multiple timescales, including behavioral (auditory-motor) and physiological (respiratory and cardiac) levels; yet the causal relationship among these levels is poorly understood. By comparing dyadic melody perception and production, we demonstrate that physiological synchrony is not merely a byproduct of shared perception, as it increases significantly during joint production relative to joint perception or to silence. Perturbing dyads behavior or respiration revealed distinct causal effects: respiratory perturbations impaired both dyadic respiratory and behavioral synchrony, whereas auditory-motor perturbations disrupted only dyadic behavioral synchrony. Individual differences further shaped synchrony: partners who shared similar spontaneous rates achieved better behavioral synchrony, and partners with more similar resting heart rates exhibited stronger cardiac synchrony in joint production. These findings disentangle the relationships among levels of human synchrony, reveal directional entrainment processes between respiratory and behavioral synchrony, and highlight the pivotal role of individual differences in interpersonal coordination.

In-depth summary

Claude Opus 5.5 · xhigh effort · 5 Nov 2026 · from the full text of version 1 (8 May 2025)

In musical dyads, perturbing breathing disrupts both respiratory and auditory-motor synchronization whereas perturbing tapping disrupts only behavior, demonstrating a unidirectional causal influence from respiration to behavioral coordination.

Interpersonal behavioral and physiological synchrony co-occur during group tasks, but whether physiological alignment is merely a passive byproduct of shared perception or causally drives coordinated action remained unresolved. Directly perturbing respiration versus auditory-motor sequence production while controlling for shared perception isolates directional entrainment mechanisms.

Key results

ShownRespiratory perturbations impair both breathing and behavioral synchrony, whereas auditory-motor perturbations disrupt only behavioral synchrony.
Across 31 dyads, tone-onset asynchronies differed by condition (F(2,60) = 14.08, p<.001, η² = 0.319), rising from Normal to Auditory (t(30) = -2.505, pholm = 0.018, d = -0.274) and Respiratory (t(30) = -4.602, pholm<.001, d = -0.870), while respiratory PLV fell in Respiratory vs Normal (t(30) = 5.183, pholm<.001, d = 0.955) and Auditory (t(30) = 4.53, pholm<.001, d = 1.00) with no Normal-Auditory gap (p=.753). · 2.1.1 Perturbation effects on auditory-motor…; 2.2.1 Respiratory synchronization; Figure legends
ShownDyadic respiratory synchrony correlates with tighter behavioral tapping alignment during both unperturbed and respiratory-perturbed production, while respiratory perturbation decouples individual cardiorespiratory rhythms.
Dyadic tone-onset asynchronies correlated negatively with respiratory PLV in Normal (Pearson r = -0.48, p = 0.006) and Respiratory (r = -0.50, p = 0.005) conditions but not Auditory (r = -0.161, p = 0.387), and within-individual n:m cardiorespiratory PLV dropped in Respiratory vs Normal (t(30) = 3.35, pholm = 0.004, d = 0.623) and Auditory (t(30) = 5.50, pholm < 0.001, d = 1.031). · 2.3 Correspondences between dyadic behavioral…; 2.4 Individual physiological rhythms and…; Figure legends
ShownJoint melody production elevates respiratory and cardiac synchrony above silent baseline and shared perception, and perturbation cues further increase cardiac synchrony.
Respiratory PLV was higher in Production than Baseline (t(30) = -2.144, p = 0.04, d = -0.385), and cardiac PLV was higher in Production than Perception (t(30) = -2.471, p = 0.01, d = -0.483) and Baseline (t(30) = -2.737, p = 0.01, d = -0.585), while cardiac PLV was higher in Auditory (t(30) = -3.166, pholm = 0.007, d = -0.52) and Respiratory (t(30) = -3.712, pholm = 0.003, d = -0.816) perturbations than Normal. · 2.2.1 Respiratory synchronization; 2.2.2 Cardiac synchronization; Figure legends
ShownPartners with more similar intrinsic movement rates and resting heart rates achieve stronger behavioral and cardiac synchronization during joint production.
In Normal Production, signed dyadic differences in Spontaneous Production Rate correlated positively with signed tone-onset asynchronies (Pearson r = 0.38, p = 0.03), and absolute Baseline resting R-R interval differences correlated negatively with dyadic cardiac PLV (Spearman rho = -0.41, p = 0.022). · 2.1.2 Individual differences in auditory-motor…; 2.2.3 Individual differences in cardiac…; Figure legends

Methods, data and reproducibility

Paired 62 amateur musicians into 31 dyads for Spontaneous Production Rate tapping, 90-s silent Baseline, joint melody Perception, and visually occluded joint Production (16-beat patterns at 500 ms/beat) under Normal, Auditory reset, and Respiratory perturbation. Recorded 1-ms MIDI tapping (FTAP), 500-Hz ECG, and 10-Hz respiration, computed Hilbert Phase Locking Values (NeuroKit2), and ran ANOVAs and permutations.

Tone-onset tapping intervals (1 ms resolution), bipolar wrist ECG (500 Hz), and chest respiration belt (10 Hz) recordings across SPR, Baseline, Perception, and Production tasks · human · n = 62 amateur musicians in 31 dyads (14 males, 48 females, 2 nonbinary; ages 18-34)

Methods & tools: NeuroKit2, FTAP, G*Power, Python (version 3.8), R (RStudio 2024.10), Biopoint ECG sensors, Vernier GDX-RB respiration belts, Roland Studio Canvas SD-50
Reagents & environment: Python 3.8 with NeuroKit2 for ECG/respiration preprocessing and PLV calculation; R (RStudio 2024.10) for repeated-measures ANOVAs and correlations; FTAP on a Toshiba Linux computer for MIDI capture.
Reproducibility gaps: Raw physiological and behavioral time series and custom Python synchronization and analysis scripts are not deposited in a public repository.

Limitations (2)

All 62 participants were young adult amateur musicians with at least six years of music instruction (mean 11.87 years) tested in two-person laboratory tasks, which may limit generalizability to non-musicians or larger groups. · noted in this summary
Compliance with deep-breathing perturbation cues in the Respiratory condition was evaluated by visual inspection of respiration traces rather than a quantitative airflow threshold, leading to the exclusion of 8 trials (2.1%). · noted in this summary

Read this if you study interpersonal motor coordination, physiological entrainment, or cardiorespiratory coupling during joint human behavior.