Linked Outcomes in Various EEG-Hyperscanning Setups (LOVEH)

January 29, 2026 updated by: Alessandra Anzolin, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

LOVEH: Linked Outcomes in Various EEG-Hyperscanning Setups

The goal of this observational study is to investigate how brains of healthy controls respond when they interact with their romantic partner compared to when they interact with a stranger. The main goals are:

  • Explore how two people's brains interact with each other by recording brain activity at the same time (a method called "hyperscanning") using electroencephalography (EEG). Using hyperscanning, this study will compare brain-to-brain communication in romantic couples versus strangers, both when they are together in person and when they are interacting remotely.
  • Test a computational model that will help explain how this brain-to-brain communication works, using real data from the brain activity EEG recordings.
  • Explore whether factors such as age, gender, how aware people are of their own body sensations, and their level of attachment influence brain-to-brain communication.

Researchers will compare brain-to-brain communication in romantic couples versus strangers, both when they are together in person and when they are interacting remotely to see which factors effect brain-to-brain communication.

Enrolled participants will:

  • Complete a consent visit with their romantic partner where they will sign a consent form and have their pain sensitivity assessed.
  • Fill out sets of questionnaires assessing their romantic relationship, their personality, and other traits.
  • Complete two EEG scans, one with their romantic partner and one with a stranger. At both scans they will conduct a pain task, a communication task, and a light stimulation task.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Detailed Description

Twenty romantic pair dyads will be recruited for this study, for a total of 40 participants. Male and female participants, aged 20-60, will be recruited using Mass General Brigham (MGB) approved recruitment methods, specifically Rally. Subject recruitment will be conducted by primary investigators and study staff. Interested patients who filled out the Rally form will be sent a screening survey in RedCap, a secure online data capture system approved by MGB Human Research Committee, via a public link. Patients will be offered the alternative of a telephone screening if they are uncomfortable with this method. After successful RedCap or telephone screening, romantic pairs will be invited to our laboratory to undergo consent. At the consent visit, romantic pairs will sign the consent form, fill out baseline questionnaires, and assess their pain sensitivity using cuff pressure. Upon completing the consent visit, patients will proceed to a baseline EEG scan with either their romantic partner or a stranger, the order will be randomized. Each member of the romantic pair will be randomized to a different stranger. The participants will then complete a second EEG scan with either their romantic pair or a stranger, depending on which person they were randomized to during their first EEG scan.

At both of the EEG scans, participants will complete a variety of tasks both face-to-face and in remote settings. The two participants will be seated face to face with the EEG caps on for the face-to-face portion of the EEG experiment, and they will be in separate rooms for the remote part of the experiment. First, an EEG cap will be placed on the head of the both the participants and the signal quality will be assessed.

The participants will then start by completing 3 minutes of eyes open and 3 minutes of eyes closed rest. This will be repeated for both face-to-face and remote settings. Participants will additionally complete an intermittent light stimulation task (ILS) where a series of photic flashes delivered by a strobe light simulation on a high frame rate monitor placed 30cm from the participant's nose is presented to the participants with eyes closed. This task will be done both face-to-face as well as remotely. The ILS task includes three conditions, one where both participants receive light stimulation simultaneously, another two where each participant will receive light stimulation while the other participant receives no light stimulation. This task measures brain to brain communication in a controlled context and takes about 6 minutes.

Participants will additionally complete a communication task in which participants are asked to make a positive wish and send warm thoughts or love to the respective other (non-verbal phase) and to say why they made this wish (verbal phase). This task will be done both face-to-face as well as remotely. In the face-to-face setting, both participants are asked to sit still and relax during eye contact. The participants are instructed to "Make a wish for the other person and tell them what you wished for them and why" (verbal phase). Then, participants are asked to focus their attention on each other and send warm thoughts or love to the respective other (non-verbal phase). In the remote setting, both participants are asked to sit still and relax. One participant will be designated as the sender and will be instructed to "Think of the person in the other room and then make a wish for them. When you've made the wish, say it out loud and describe why you wish them what you wished".

Participants will additionally complete a cuff pain task. A blood pressure cuff device will be place on one of the participant's left leg and will be used to deliver moderately painful stimulations, calibrated at the consent visit. After each painful stimulation, the subject wearing the cuff will be asked to rate the pain they felt on a scale from 0-100 where 0 is no pain and 100 is the most intense pain imaginable. Simultaneously, the other participant will rate the level of pain they believe their experimental partner felt on the same 0-100 scale. The participants will then repeat the task with switched roles and participant 2 will be receiving moderate painful stimulations. This cuff task will be performed both in-person and remotely to assess the difference in brain to brain communication associated with empathy for pain and pain relief.

Lastly, patients will each complete an interoceptive awareness task - a task assessing the extent to which participants are aware of their own body sensations. The participants are instructed to alternate between focusing on their heartbeat/breathing (interoception) and visual/auditory stimuli (exteroception). After each trial, they are asked to rate the intensity of their body sensation from "No Sensation" to "Extremely Strong".

At various points throughout the EEG scan, participants will be administered questionnaires to assess their romantic relationship, their personality, and other traits.

The duration for each visit in this study will be approximately one hour for the consent visit and 2.5 hours per imaging visit. Therefore, each patient will spend a total of ~6 hours in the study.

A record will be created for each research subject, labeled by their subject ID using the software RedCap. It is a secure online data capture system which allows us to store and manage surveys and a database containing the answers to our questionnaires, notes on visits, and dates of the visits. All study visits will take place at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (SRH).

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
40

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States, 02129
        • Recruiting
        • Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
        • Contact:
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Alessandra Anzolin, PhD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Twenty healthy control romantic pair dyads will be recruited for this study, for a total of 40 participants. Male and female participants, aged 20-60, will be recruited.

Description

Inclusion Criteria

  1. Healthy volunteers in a romantic partnership for at least 6 months.
  2. 20-60 years of age
  3. Ability to fully understand and consent to study procedures.
  4. Fluent in English
  5. Are on stable doses of medication for 30 days prior to entering the study and agree not to change medications or dosages during the trial.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Presence of any contraindications to EEG scanning.
  2. Illicit drug or opioid use.
  3. Epilepsy, seizures provoked by lights or a prior history of seizures.
  4. Presence of any illness that is judged to interfere with the trial. For example: severe psychiatric disorders according to the DSM-IV manual.
  5. Current chronic pain conditions.
  6. Unwillingness to be audio recorded.
  7. Unwillingness to receive brief experimental pain on the lower left leg.
  8. Unwillingness to withhold from consuming marijuana 48 hours prior to scans.
  9. Unwillingness to withhold from consuming nicotine 4 hours prior to scans.
  10. Any impairment, activity, or situation that in the judgment of the Study Coordinator or Principal Investigator would prevent satisfactory completion of the study protocol.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort

Group / Cohort

A group or subgroup of participants in an observational study that is assessed for biomedical or health outcomes.
Romantic Pair

Two people involved in a romantic relationship for longer than 1 year.

This is a cross-sectional study in which every subject will complete the experiment in both conditions, once with their romantic pair, and once with a randomly assigned stranger. Therefore, participants will complete one EEG with their romantic pair, and one EEG with a stranger. The order of the EEG scans and the cross-over will be randomized.
Stranger Pair

Two people who have never seen each other before the EEG visit.

This is a cross-sectional study in which every subject will complete the experiment in both conditions, once with their romantic pair, and once with a randomly assigned stranger. Therefore, participants will complete one EEG with their romantic pair, and one EEG with a stranger. The order of the EEG scans and the cross-over will be randomized.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Inter-Brain Connectivity (IBC)
Time Frame: 1 year

Brain to brain connectivity (or IBC) estimated on EEG-hyperscan data acquired simultaneously from two people (either romantic partners or strangers). The investigators hypothesize that IBC (density of connections):

  • will be modulated by the level of attachment (factor 1) regardless of subjects proximity (same room versus separate rooms, factor 2).
  • will be stronger during communication task and empathy for pain compared to resting state.
  • will be affected by demographical factors including age, sex, and race.
1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Heart-beat Evoked Potentials (HEP) during Interoception Task
Time Frame: 1 year.

The ability to process internal-body sensations (interoception awareness) can be assessed by brain-heart interaction measures such as the brain potential generated in the brain after each heartbeat (HEP). The investigators hypothesize that different levels of interoception awareness measured by validated questionnaires (MAIA):

  • will modulate HEP during interoception task
  • will correlate with measures of inter-brain connectivty.
1 year.

Other Outcome Measures

Other Outcome Measures

For clinical trials, a planned measurement described in the protocol that is used to determine the effect of an intervention/treatment on participants. For observational studies, a measurement or observation that is used to describe patterns of diseases or traits, or associations with exposures, risk factors, or treatment. Types of outcome measures include primary outcome measure and secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Autonomic concordance.
Time Frame: 1 year

Autonomic concordance between two subjects will be assessed during face-to-face hyperscanning experiments. Expected Research Outcomes:

  • Identify increased autonomic concordance during the communication task compared to resting state.
  • Identify a significant effect of the factors age, sex, level of attachment.
1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Université de Montréal
Emerald Gate Charitable Trust

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Alessandra Anzolin, PhD, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
December 12, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
December 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
March 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
January 22, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 29, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
February 3, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
February 3, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 29, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 2025P000921

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Per IRB guidelines.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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