Functional connectivity changes in the intra- and inter-brain during the construction of the multi-brain network of pigeons

Multi-brain network, also known as social cooperative network, is formed by multiple animal or human brains, whose changes of functional connectivity in the intra- and inter-brain during construction are unclear at present. To investigate the intra- and inter-brain functional connectivity of pigeons while performing a social cooperation task, we designed an inter-brain synchronization task to train three pigeons to synchronize their neural activities using cross-brain neurofeedback. Then the neural signals of three pigeons were simultaneously recorded by using a hyperscanning approach, and inter-brain synchronization was calculated using the phase-locked value (PLV) online. Finally, the intra- and inter-brain functional connectivity of three pigeons were analyzed. We found that during long-term neurofeedback training, with the increase of the inter-brain synchronization of three pigeons, the intra- and inter-brain functional connectivity also enhance significantly. Moreover, we also found that the above phenomenon relies on the external visual cue. These results suggest that the promotion of social cooperation is the result of the modulation between the intra- and inter-brain, which may be an underlying neural mechanism of the communication and cooperation among individuals in social networks.