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Innovative Methods in Media and Communication Research pp 123–138Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Beyond Blobology: Using Psychophysiological Interaction Analyses to Investigate the Neural Basis of Human Communication Phenomena

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Abstract

Huskey shows how rapid advances in brain-imaging technologies have allowed for the systematic investigation of the mind/brain and researchers are increasingly utilizing these methods to examine the neural basis of human communication behavior. The chapter introduces communication scholars interested in conducting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigations to psychophysiological interaction analyses (PPI). Huskey discusses the methodological particulars associated with using a PPI analysis to test the synchronization theory of flow before concluding with a broader outlook on applications to communication theory and research. Specifically, the chapter discusses how investigations of neural connectivity can be used for theoretical falsification, conceptual refinement, and distinguishing constructs that have similar phenomenological characteristics and behavioral outcomes.

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Acknowledgments

The theoretical rationale and methodological procedures for assessing neural connectivity have been a hot topic of discussion within the Media Neuroscience Lab (http://medianeuroscience.org). Two collaborators deserve special recognition and thanks. René Weber at UC Santa Barbara was the first to introduce me to neural connectivity and has provided helpful guidance for conceptualizing communication phenomena from a connectivity perspective. Michael Mangus at UC Santa Barbara deserves special praise for his technical contributions, particularly the development of automation procedures that make the manipulation of large brain-imaging data sets much more manageable. I am sincerely grateful for their help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Richard Huskey

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  1. Richard Huskey
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Correspondence to Richard Huskey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bremen (ZeMKI), Bremen, Germany

    Sebastian Kubitschko

  2. Södertörn University, Huddinge, Sweden

    Anne Kaun

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Huskey, R. (2016). Beyond Blobology: Using Psychophysiological Interaction Analyses to Investigate the Neural Basis of Human Communication Phenomena. In: Kubitschko, S., Kaun, A. (eds) Innovative Methods in Media and Communication Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40700-5_7

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