Can dyadic rope-skipping enhance cooperative behavior in female university students with depressive symptoms? Evidence from behavioral and fNIRS hyperscanning data.

Can dyadic rope-skipping enhance cooperative behavior in female university students with depressive symptoms? Evidence from behavioral and fNIRS hyperscanning data - PMC Skip to main content An official website of the United States government Here's how you know Here's how you know Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock Locked padlock icon ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Search Log in Dashboard Publications Account settings Log out Search… Search NCBI Primary site navigation Search Logged in as: Dashboard Publications Account settings Log in Search PMC Full-Text Archive Search in PMC Journal List User Guide PERMALINK Copy As a library, NLM provides access to scientific literature. Inclusion in an NLM database does not imply endorsement of, or agreement with, the contents by NLM or the National Institutes of Health. Learn more: PMC Disclaimer | PMC Copyright Notice BMC Psychiatry . 2026 Mar 10;26:321. doi: 10.1186/s12888-026-07943-z Search in PMC Search in PubMed View in NLM Catalog Add to search Can dyadic rope-skipping enhance cooperative behavior in female university students with depressive symptoms? Evidence from behavioral and fNIRS hyperscanning data Shiyu Wang Shiyu Wang 1 Key Laboratory of Adolescent Health Assessment and Exercise Intervention of Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 2 College of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China Find articles by Shiyu Wang 1, 2 , Wenhuan Wang Wenhuan Wang 3 The Fifth School Affiliated to East China Normal University, Shanghai, China Find articles by Wenhuan Wang 3 , Meng Yao Meng Yao 4 Jiading Hongde Middle School Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China Find articles by Meng Yao 4 , Jie Cui Jie Cui 5 Physical Education College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China Find articles by Jie Cui 5 , Boyi Zong Boyi Zong 6 School of Sport Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023 China Find articles by Boyi Zong 6 , Jingxuan Liu Jingxuan Liu 1 Key Laboratory of Adolescent Health Assessment and Exercise Intervention of Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 2 College of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China Find articles by Jingxuan Liu 1, 2 , Dongxi Guo Dongxi Guo 1 Key Laboratory of Adolescent Health Assessment and Exercise Intervention of Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 2 College of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China Find articles by Dongxi Guo 1, 2 , Lin Li Lin Li 1 Key Laboratory of Adolescent Health Assessment and Exercise Intervention of Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 2 College of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China Find articles by Lin Li 1, 2, ✉ Author information Article notes Copyright and License information 1 Key Laboratory of Adolescent Health Assessment and Exercise Intervention of Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 2 College of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 3 The Fifth School Affiliated to East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 4 Jiading Hongde Middle School Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China 5 Physical Education College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China 6 School of Sport Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023 China ✉ Corresponding author. Received 2025 Nov 4; Accepted 2026 Feb 25; Collection date 2026. © The Author(s) 2026 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ . PMC Copyright notice PMCID: PMC13085406  PMID: 41803765 Abstract Background Impaired cooperative behavior represents a prominent social dysfunction in individuals with depressive symptoms. Synchronous exercise has been proposed to facilitate social interaction. However, empirical evidence regarding its effects on cooperation and associated neural responses in individuals with depressive symptoms remains limited. This study examined whether a single session of dyadic rope-skipping enhances cooperative behavior and prefrontal interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) in female college students with depressive symptoms. Methods In a randomized controlled trial, 110 female college students with depressive symptoms were assigned to an experimental group (28 dyads) or a control group (27 dyads). The experimental group completed a 30-minute dyadic rope-skipping session, whereas the control group remained seated for an equivalent duration. Cooperative behavior was assessed before and after the intervention using a Prisoner’s Dilemma task. Prefrontal INS was concurrently recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning. Results Compared with pre-intervention, the experimental group showed significant increases in both individual cooperation rate ( p = 0.041) and mutual cooperation rate ( p = 0.028), along with significant decreases in individual defection rate ( p = 0.039) and mutual defection rate ( p = 0.040). Following the intervention, compared with the control group, the experimental group demonstrated higher individual ( p < 0.001) and mutual ( p = 0.013) cooperation rates, lower individual ( p < 0.001) and mutual ( p = 0.002) defection rates. fNIRS hyperscanning result showed significantly enhanced INS within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and frontopolar cortex following dyadic exercise. Although behavioral improvements were not linearly associated with neural changes (all p > 0.0033), robust synchronization increases were observed across prefrontal channels, specifically, INS changes in CH17-7 were strongly correlated with CH13-7 ( r = 0.497, p < 0.001) and CH17-17 ( r = 0.601, p < 0.001). Conclusions A single session of dyadic rope-skipping significantly improved cooperative behavior and enhanced prefrontal INS in female college students with depressive symptoms. These findings provide convergent behavioral and neurophysiological evidence that synchronous exercise can promote social functioning in individuals with depressive symptoms. Clinical trial number Not applicable. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12888-026-07943-z. Keywords: Dyadic rope-skipping, Depressive symptoms, Cooperation, Interpersonal neural synchrony (INS), fNIRS hyperscanning Introduction According to the World Health Organization [ 1 ], depression affects more than 280 million individuals worldwide and has become the second leading cause of death among individuals aged 15–29 years. Notably, the prevalence of depression among college students has been reported to be as high as 30% [ 2 ]. Beyond core symptoms such as persistent low mood and anhedonia, individuals with depressive symptoms frequently exhibit marked impairments in social functioning, including reduced cooperative behavior and compromised interpersonal performance [ 3 , 4 ]. Cooperation, defined as the coordinated efforts of individuals or groups to achieve shared goals or mutual benefits, which plays a critical role in effective social functioning [ 5 , 6 ]. Deficits in cooperative behavior not only undermine social adjustment and relationship stability [ 7 , 8 ], but also contribute to diminished quality of life and impaired academic and career development [ 9 ]. Accordingly, interventions targeting cooperative dysfunction in individuals with depressive symptoms may facilitate social reintegration, strengthen interpersonal support networks, alleviate affective burden, and reduce broader public health costs. Existing strategies to enhance cooperation in individuals with depressive symptoms primarily include social cognitive training [ 10 ] and neuromodulatory approaches such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation [ 11 , 12 ]. However, these interventions are often constrained by substantial cognitive demands, technical complexity, and reliance on specialized equipment, limiting scalability [ 13 – 15 ]. In recent years, aerobic exercise has garnered attention for its efficacy in improving depressive symptoms, with advantages including ease of implementation, rapid effects, and benefits for both physical and mental health [ 16 , 17 ]. Li et al. (2023) demonstrated that a single 30-minute bout of moderate-intensity cycling significantly enhanced cooperative behavior in healthy adults [ 18 ]. Given the pronounced effects of synchronous exercise on interpersonal cooperation, subsequent studies employed 30-minute dyadic synchronous cycling interventions and observed similar improvements in cooperative behavior [ 19 ]. Research on synchronous movement has examined various forms, such as synchronized swinging [ 20 ], walking [ 21 ], and dancing [ 22 ], consistently demonstrated their effectiveness in promoting cooperative behavior. While accumulating evidence indicates that physical exercise reduces symptoms in individuals with depressive symptoms and that synchronized exercise promotes cooperative behavior in healthy adults, whether synchronized exercise can enhance cooperative performance among individuals with depressive symptoms remains to be determined. Building on these findings, the present study developed a dyadic rope-skipping intervention tailored for individuals with depressive symptoms. This activity requires partners to continuously monitor each other’s movements, dynamically adjust their own motor output, and maintain shared rhythm and temporal coordination. Such a dyadic and reciprocally regulated form of exercise integrates individual motor execution with sustained interpersonal attunement, resembling coordination demands commonly observed in team-based sports. By fostering real-time mutual adaptation and embodied synchrony, we hypothesized that this interactive exercise paradigm would effectively enhance cooperative behavior in individuals with depressive symptoms. The Prisoner’s Dilemma Game (PDG) is a canonical paradigm for investigating cooperative decision-making, capturing the tension between self-interest and collective benefit [ 23 , 24 ], and has been widely used to assess cooperative deficits in individuals with depressive symptoms [ 25 ]. To capture the dynamic neural processes underlying such dyadic interactions, hyperscanning, a technique that simultaneously records brain activity from multiple interacting individuals, has emerged as a powerful approach [ 26 , 27 ]. Converging evidence indicates that successful cooperation is supported by interpersonal neural synchrony (INS), particularly within the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a region central to social cognition, shared intentionality, and joint decision-making [ 28 ]. Greater PFC-INS predicts cooperative success, trust, and mutual adaptation [ 29 – 31 ]. In contrast, individuals with depressive symptoms typically exhibit reduced PFC activation [ 25 ] and diminished INS during social interactions [ 32 ]. Emerging evidence suggests that exercise may enhance PFC function [ 33 , 34 ], increase regional activation [ 35 , 36 ] and strengthen INS [ 18 , 19 ]. For example, a single session of dyadic synchronous cycling significantly increased left PFC-INS, which correlated with improved cooperative performance [ 19 ]. Accordingly, the PFC was designated as the primary region of interest in the present study. Using the PDG combined with fNIRS hyperscanning, this study investigated the effects of dyadic rope-skipping on cooperative behavior and associated neural responses in female college students with depressive symptoms. Given the higher prevalence of depressive symptoms in females [ 37 ] and their heightened vulnerability to interpersonal stress and social dysfunction [ 38 ], consequently, only female participants were recruited. We hypothesized that dyadic rope-skipping would enhance cooperative behavior and increase PFC-INS in individuals with depressive symptoms. Materials and methods Participants An a priori power analysis was conducted using G*Power (v.3.0) [ 39 ] to determine the minimum sample size required for repeated-measures ANOVA (F test, rmANOVA). With an effect size of 0.25, a statistical power of 0.85, and a significance level of α = 0.05, the analysis indicated that at least 39 dyads were required. Participants were recruited from a university in Shanghai. A total of 164 female students were initially screened using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). One week later, a second BDI-II assessment was conducted to ensure reliability. According to the BDI-II manual [ 40 ], scores at or above 14 serve as the threshold for manifesting significant depressive symptoms. Participants whose scores met or exceeded this threshold in both assessments were considered eligible. Additional inclusion criteria were as follows: no severe physical illness, no history of brain injury or epilepsy, no history of psychiatric disorders other than the current depressive symptoms, right-handed, normal or corrected-to-normal vision (≥ 0.8), no color blindness or color weakness, no medication use within the prior two weeks, and no previous training experience with rope-skipping, clear understanding of the experimental instructions and successfully completed all tasks, specifically the PDG. After screening, 112 eligible female students with depressive symptoms were included in the study. To control for baseline depressive symptoms severity on cooperative behavior, a matched-pair randomization procedure was implemented. First, participants were paired based on similar baseline BDI-II scores, resulting in 56 dyads. Subsequently, dyads were randomly assigned to the experimental ( n = 28 dyads) or control ( n = 28 dyads) groups using the randperm function in MATLAB 2019a, ensuring no significant differences in baseline depressive symptoms between groups. This matching procedure enhanced baseline comparability between groups. During the experiment, one dyad in the control group was unable to complete the study due to scheduling conflicts. Consequently, the final sample included 28 dyads in the experimental group and 27 dyads in the control group. Participant recruitment, screening, and attrition are illustrated in Fig. 1 . Fig. 1. Open in a new tab Flow diagram of participant recruitment, screening, and allocation This study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the most recent revision of the Declaration of Helsinki and received ethical approval from the Human Research Protection Committee of East China Normal University (Approval No. HR498-2020). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to study participation. Given the inclusion of individuals with elevated depressive symptoms, a comprehensive risk management protocol was implemented. In the event that a participant exhibited acute emotional distress or expressed suicidal ideation during the experimental procedure, the session was to be terminated immediately, followed by prompt professional evaluation. Participants requiring further support would be referred to the university’s psychological counseling center or appropriate specialized medical services. No incidents occurred during the study that required activation of this emergency protocol. Participants received monetary compensation of at least 50 RMB for participation, with additional performance-contingent incentives of up to 10 RMB based on task outcomes. Experimental procedure To control for potential order effects, such as practice effects, a counterbalanced experimental design was implemented (see Fig. 2 ). Fig. 2. Open in a new tab Experimental settings. ( A ) Experimental procedure; ( B ) fNIRS channels localization map; ( C ) Prisoner’s Dilemma Game (PDG) task process; ( D ) Decision benefit chart of PDG, c > a > b > d, and 2a > c+d > 2b Upon arrival at the laboratory, participants first completed baseline assessments, which included a demographic questionnaire (covering age, sex, exercise experience, and medication use), the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) to evaluate physical activity levels, and the Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) scale to assess interpersonal intimacy and trust. Baseline comparisons between groups are presented in Table 1 . Participants were then provided with a detailed explanation of the overall experimental procedure (Fig. 2 A) and the PDG task to ensure full understanding of the task requirements and rules. To avoid confounding practice effects, no practice trials were administered. During the PDG task, dyads sat face-to-face while a 3 × 5 channel fNIRS cap was applied to each participant to simultaneously record prefrontal cortical activity. A 30-second seated rest period was provided prior to task onset to stabilize physiological and psychological states. Participants were instructed to refrain from verbal communication, using suggestive words (e.g., “cooperate” or “defect”), or gestural cues throughout the task. Subsequently, the intervention phase commenced, participants in the experimental group performed dyadic rope-skipping, whereas control participants remained seated in a separate room. Following the intervention, post-test PDG behavioral assessments and fNIRS recordings were conducted once participants’ heart rates returned to within ± 10% of resting levels. The experiment concluded immediately afterward, and participants left the laboratory. Table 1. Baseline demographic and psychological characteristics of participants (Mean ± SD) Experimental group ( n = 56, 28 dyads) Control group ( n = 54, 27dyads) t p Cohen’s d Age (years old) 20.89 ± 2.03 20.52 ± 1.93 0.990 0.325 0.189 Height (cm) 162.73 ± 5.28 162.87 ± 5.11 -0.140 0.889 -0.027 Weight (kg) 60.65 ± 19.44 63.21 ± 20.32 -0.676 0.501 -0.129 Depressive symptom scores 21.23 ± 7.54 19.30 ± 5.48 1.536 0.127 0.293 Intimacy scores with experimental partner 1.18 ± 0.39 1.19 ± 0.44 -0.084 0.933 -0.016 Trust scores with experimental partner 2.63 ± 1.37 2.76 ± 1.06 -0.573 0.568 -0.109 Physical activity level (MET-min/w) 1501.71 ± 962.46 1880.98 ± 1715.16 -1.437 0.154 -0.274 Open in a new tab This rigorous experimental procedure minimized potential confounding factors, thereby ensuring the reliability and internal validity of the study findings. Intervention protocol Participants in the experimental group completed a 30-minute session of moderate-intensity dyadic rope-skipping. According to the American College of Sports Medicine [ 41 ] guidelines for physical activity intensity in adults, moderate-intensity exercise was defined as activity performed within a specified heart rate range. Exercise intensity was prescribed using the heart rate reserve (HRR) method (HRR=maximum heart rate–resting heart rate), where maximum heart rate was estimated by the formula “220–age”. Moderate-intensity was defined as 60–69% of HRR. During the intervention, participants wore Polar heart rate monitors (Polar, Finland) to continuously record heart rate. The exercise session comprised four phases: warm-up, rope-skipping familiarization, formal rope-skipping, and post-exercise stretching. After a brief familiarization period with the dyadic rope-skipping task, participants completed the formal session, which comprised five sections, each consisting of 2 min of jumping followed by 2 min of rest. Dyads shared a single rope and performed either in a face-to-face or side-by-side configuration (Fig. 3 A). The selection of configuration was preference-based, each dyad determined the arrangement they considered more comfortable and conducive to effective coordination. Participants were instructed to complete as many successful jumps as possible within their tolerable range, with counts automatically recorded by an electronic counter. The full session, including warm-up and stretching, lasted approximately 30 min. During exercise, participants’ heart rates ranged from 110 to 180 bpm, with an average of 130.79 ± 12.34 bpm (example of heart rate changes in a participant see Fig. 3 B), confirming the achievement of moderate-intensity exercise. The total number of jumps (Mean ± SD=350.23 ± 41.36) per dyad exhibited a steady and progressive increase across the five exercise sections (Fig. 3 C), which reflects a significant improvement in cooperative coordination and behavioral synchrony over the course of the task. Fig. 3. Open in a new tab Exercise settings. ( A ) Schematic diagram of dyadic rope-skipping; ( B ) Example of heart rate changes in a participant; ( C ) Change curve of the number of skipping by exercise sections Participants in the control group remained seated face-to-face in a separate room for 30 min. They were instructed to remain awake and refrain from verbal communication or napping. Heart rate monitors were also worn by control participants to ensure that their heart rates remained within ± 10% of resting levels. Prisoner’s Dilemma Game (PDG) paradigm A computerised adaptation of the classic PDG was implemented in E-Prime 3.0 to investigate interpersonal cooperative behaviour. In this dyadic task, two participants simultaneously chose on each trial to either cooperate or defect, resulting in four possible outcome combinations: The four possible scenarios are as follows: (a) Mutual cooperation, (b) mutual defection, (c) unilateral cooperation (wherein the first agent cooperates while the second defects), and (d) unilateral defection (wherein the first agent defects while the second cooperates). The corresponding payoffs followed the standard PDG inequality c > a> b > d, with the additional joint-payoff constraint 2a > c+d > 2b, ensuring that mutual cooperation yields a higher combined reward than alternating cooperation and defection (see Fig. 2 D). The task comprised three blocks of 10, 11, and 12 trials each. In order to control for potential order effects, the block sequence was randomized across dyads. Reward magnitudes increased progressively across blocks (Block 1 < Block 2 < Block 3), thereby introducing a dynamic incentive structure. Each trial was approximately 20 s in duration, thus resulting in a total task duration of approximately 10 min. The participants were informed in advance that their compensation would consist of a fixed participation fee in addition to a performance-contingent bonus based on cumulative task earnings (see Fig. 2 C). The paradigm has been developed to demonstrate an iterated, incentive-compatible design, with the objective of simulating real-world social exchanges. The model enables the examination of strategic behavioural patterns, including reciprocity, trust building and opportunism, when individuals face repeated trade-offs between cooperation and self-interest. The design thus provides a valid experimental framework for probing the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying interpersonal cooperation. Questionnaires Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) Depressive symptom severity was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) [ 40 ], which contains 21 items rated on a 4-point Likert scale from 0 (no symptoms) to 3 (severe symptoms), with a total possible score of 63. Scores ≥ 14 were classified as indicating at least mild depression. The BDI-II has demonstrated good internal consistency among Chinese college students (Cronbach’s α = 0.85) [ 42 ]. International Physical Activity Questionnaire–Short Form (IPAQ-SF) Physical activity levels were evaluated using the IPAQ-SF, which consists of seven items: six assessing activities of varying intensity and one assessing sedentary behavior. Metabolic equivalent (MET) values for moderate and vigorous activity were set at 4.0 and 8.0, respectively [ 43 ]. The Chinese version of IPAQ-SF has been widely validated in university populations [ 44 ]. Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) scale The IOS scale was used to measure interpersonal intimacy and trust [ 45 – 47 ]. The scale consists of two overlapping circles representing the “self” and the “other”. Degree of overlap ranges from 1 to 7, with higher scores indicating greater intimacy or trust. fNIRS measurement Cerebral hemodynamic activity was continuously recorded throughout the experiment using a Hitachi ETG-7100 fNIRS system (Hitachi Medical Corporation, Japan). The device operated at two wavelengths (695 nm and 830 nm) to measure changes in the concentrations of oxyhaemoglobin (oxy-Hb) and deoxyhaemoglobin (deoxy-Hb). In line with prior research indicating that interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) during cooperation is primarily localised in the prefrontal cortex [ 28 , 31 ], two 3 × 5 optode probe sets were positioned over each participant’s prefrontal region. Each probe array comprised 8 light emitters and 7 detectors, arranged with an inter-optode distance of 3 cm, yielding a total of 22 measurement channels (channels position see Fig. 2 B). In order to ensure accurate anatomical registration, the lower middle row of each optode array was aligned with the Fpz site in accordance with the international 10-20 electrode placement system. The estimation of channel locations was subsequently conducted utilising the virtual registration tool provided by Jichi Medical University ( http://www.jichi.ac.jp/brainlab/virtual_registration/Result3x5_E.html ). These coordinates were then transformed into Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space via NIRS-SPM software to determine the precise neuroanatomical correspondence of each recording channel. This particular fNIRS configuration provides a high degree of spatial specificity for the purpose of assessing INS during cooperative interaction. By tracking the dynamic variations in oxy-Hb and deoxy-Hb, the setup enables real-time monitoring of prefrontal cortical engagement throughout task performance, offering a robust methodological approach for investigating the neural underpinnings of interpersonal cooperation. INS data processing and analysis Dyadic fNIRS data were preprocessed and analyzed in MATLAB (R2018b) using the PCA and Wavelet Transform Coherence (WTC) toolboxes ( http://www.alivelearn.net ). To enhance signal stability and minimize transitional artifacts, the initial 1-minute recording segment and all inter-block rest periods were excluded from further analyses. Signal quality was rigorously evaluated by assessing the physiological coupling between oxygenated (HbO) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (HbR). Channels exhibiting non-physiological correlations, defined as a perfect negative correlation ( r = − 1) or a positive correlation exceeding 0.5, were classified as invalid and excluded from analysis. Given its higher sensitivity to task-evoked cortical activation, HbO concentration changes were selected as the primary index for subsequent interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) analyses [ 32 ]. To enhance the signal-to-noise ratio, a two-step filtering procedure was implemented. First, a principal component spatial filter (PCA) [ 48 ] was applied to the HbO signals, the spatial components were decomposed via singular value decomposition (SVD) and smoothed with a Gaussian kernel ( t = 3, σ = 50), to identify and subtract global systemic noise (e.g., motion artifacts and blood pressure fluctuations) from the neuronal signals. Second, the signals underwent time-frequency filtering within the Wavelet Transform Coherence (WTC) framework [ 49 ] to compute correlations between dyads for each channel. Based on a visual inspection of the WTC profiles (see Supplementary Materials, Fig. 1 ), the frequency band of 6.4–102.4 s (~ 0.01–0.15 Hz) was identified as the period of interest. This range captures task-locked synchronization related to the experimental game rounds (~ 40 s) while effectively suppressing high-frequency physiological artifacts (e.g., heartbeats and respiration) and low-frequency baseline drifts. For each dyadic channel, INS values within the chosen frequency band were averaged. To quantify task-specific effects, INS change scores were calculated (mean task INS minus mean rest INS) and subjected to a Fisher z-transformation to normalize the distribution. To control for Type I errors, the False Discovery Rate (FDR) correction was applied for multiple comparisons across all channels. Channels that passed the FDR-corrected threshold (typically corresponding to an adjusted p < 0.05) were identified as channels of interest for subsequent group-level ANOVA and correlation analyses. Finally, significant results were visualized on 3D brain models using the xjView and BrainNet Viewer toolboxes. Statistical analysis For behavioral analyses, the first three trials of first block were discarded to minimize potential adaptation effects, resulting in 30 valid trials per participant. Outliers were defined as values exceeding ± 3 standard deviations from the group mean and were replaced with the corresponding group mean values. The proportion of excluded trials and invalid channels was below 1% for all behavioral and neural indices, indicating high data integrity and minimal impact of processing procedures on overall results. Behavioral metrics included Individual Cooperation Rate and Individual Defection Rate, defined as the proportion of trials a participant chose to cooperate or defect, respectively; Mutual Cooperation Rate and Mutual Defection Rate, defined as the proportion of trials in which both participants chose the same option. Higher Individual Cooperation Rate indicates stronger cooperative tendencies, while higher Individual Defection Rate indicates greater self-interest. High Mutual Cooperation Rate reflects stable, mutually trusting cooperative strategies, whereas high Mutual Defection Rate indicates defensive or distrustful interaction patterns [ 50 ]. Behavioral and neural data were analyzed using R (v4.3.3) and SPSS (v26.0), with significance set at p < 0.05 (two-tailed), fNIRS, behavioral and psychometric data normally distributed to allow for parametric testing. Behavioral, neural, and psychometric data were analyzed using R (v4.3.3) and SPSS (v26.0), with a two-tailed significance threshold of p < 0.05 (two-tailed), they conformed to normal distributions, permitting the use of parametric statistical tests. Baseline group comparisons for demographic and psychological characteristics were conducted using independent-samples t-tests. Intervention effects were evaluated via 2 (time: pre, post)×2 (group: experimental, control) repeated-measures ANOVA. Significant interactions were further explored through simple effect analyses using t-tests, with Bonferroni correction applied to control for multiple comparisons. Post-hoc pairwise comparisons for main effects similarly employed Bonferroni adjustment to maintain stringent control over Type I error. For a subset of participants, no defection responses were observed at post-test, resulting in an insufficient number of trials in the defection condition. Consequently, INS for this condition could not be reliably estimated, and the minimum sample size requirements specified by G*Power for valid effect size estimation were not met. Therefore, INS results for the defection condition are not presented in the main text. Nevertheless, to determine whether certain neural responses were specific to the cooperation condition, exploratory analyses were conducted for the defection condition, and the corresponding results are provided in the Supplementary Materials. Furthermore, Pearson correlation analyses were performed to examine associations between significant changes in mutual behavioral indices and INS within the experimental group. Results Baseline demographic and psychological characteristics Independent-samples t-tests revealed no significant baseline differences between the experimental and control groups in terms of age, height, weight, depression scores, interpersonal intimacy and trust scores with experimental partner, also physical activity levels (see Table 1 ). Behavioral results At the individual level, for individual cooperation rate, repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of group (F (1,108) = 7.207, p = 0.008, partial η 2 = 0.063) and a significant interaction effect of time×group (F (1,108) = 10.921, p = 0.001, partial η 2 = 0.092), no significant time effect (F (1,108) = 0.161, p = 0.689, partial η 2 = 0.001). To maintain initial homogeneity, baseline comparisons were performed, showing no significant difference between the experimental (M = 64.70, SD = 27.52) and control groups (M = 58.15, SD = 33.45) at pre-test ( t (108) = 1.124, p = 0.264, Cohen’s d = 0.214). Subsequent simple effect analyses using Bonferroni-corrected t-tests demonstrated that the individual cooperation rate in the experimental group significantly increased from pre-test to post-test (M = 71.91, SD = 27.09; t (55) = -2.627, p = 0.041, Cohen’s d = -0.351), whereas a significant decrease was observed in the control group (M = 48.95, SD = 37.54; t (53) = 2.201, p = 0.011, Cohen’s d = 0.300). Notably, at post-test, the experimental group exhibited a significantly higher individual cooperation rate than control group ( t (108) = 3.688, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.703; Fig. 4 A). Fig. 4. Open in a new tab Behavioral change diagram. *means p < 0.05, **means p < 0.01, ***means p < 0.001 For individual defection rate, the main effect of group (F (1,108) = 6.787, p = 0.010, partial η 2 = 0.059) and the interaction effect (F (1,108) = 10.113, p = 0.002, partial η 2 = 0.086) were significant, no significant time effect (F (1,108) = 0.063, p = 0.803, partial η 2 = 0.001). Baseline comparisons showed no significant difference between the experimental (M = 35.34, SD = 27.27) and control groups (M = 41.85, SD = 33.57) at pre-test ( t (108) =-1.119, p = 0.266, Cohen’s d = -0.213). Subsequent simple effect demonstrated that the individual defection rate in the experimental group significantly decreased from pre-test to post-test (M = 28.11, SD = 27.07; t (55) = 2.709, p = 0.039, Cohen’s d = 0.362), whereas a significant increased was observed in the control group (M = 50.31, SD = 37.72; t (53) = -2.018, p = 0.018, Cohen’s d = -0.275). Notably, at post-test, the experimental group exhibited a significantly lower individual defection rate than the control group ( t (108) = -3.555, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = -0.678; Fig. 4 B). At the mutual level, for mutual cooperation rate, a significant interaction effect was observed (F (1,53) = 6.143, p = 0.016, partial η 2 = 0.104), and no group (F (1,53) = 3.443, p = 0.069, partial η 2 = 0.061) or time (F (1,53) = 0.467, p = 0.497, partial η 2 = 0.009) main effect. Baseline comparisons showed no significant difference between the experimental between the experimental (M = 52.14, SD = 30.55) and control groups (M = 45.19, SD = 38.07) at pre-test ( t (53) = 0.749, p = 0.457, Cohen’s d = 0.202). Subsequent simple effect demonstrated that the mutual cooperation rate in the experimental group significantly increased from pre-test to post-test (M = 64.32, SD = 33.63; t (27) = -2.640, p = 0.028, Cohen’s d = -0.499), whereas no significantly change was observed in the control group (M = 38.27, SD = 40.86; t (26) = 1.112, p = 0.214, Cohen’s d = 0.214). Notably, at post-test, the experimental group exhibited a significantly higher mutual cooperation rate than the control group ( t (53) = 2.585, p = 0.013, Cohen’s d = 0.697; Fig. 4 C). For mutual defection rate, both a significant main effect of group (F (1,53) = 5.361, p = 0.024, partial η 2 = 0.092) and a significant interaction effect (F (1,53) = 9.272, p = 0.004, partial η 2 = 0.149) were found, no significant time effect (F (1,53) = 0.010, p = 0.919, partial η 2 < 0.001). Baseline comparisons showed no significant difference between the experimental (M = 23.27, SD = 22.46) and control groups (M = 28.40, SD = 29.59) at pre-test ( t (53) = -0.725, p = 0.472, Cohen’s d = -0.195). Subsequent simple effect demonstrated that the individual defection rate in the experimental group significantly decreased from pre-test to post-test (M = 13.69, SD = 18.73; t (27) = 2.720, p = 0.040, Cohen’s d = 0.514), whereas a significant increased was observed in the control group (M = 38.64, SD = 34.55; t (26) = -1.851, p = 0.032, Cohen’s d = -0.356). Notably, at post-test, the experimental group exhibited a significantly lower individual defection rate than the control group ( t (53) = -3.346, p = 0.002, Cohen’s d = -0.903; Fig. 4 D). Hyperscanning results Regarding INS during mutual cooperation, repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed significant Time×Group interaction effects across multiple prefrontal regions. Specifically, a significant interaction was identified at CH3-3 (OFC) (F (1,86) = 7.628, p = 0.007, partial η 2 = 0.081). Simple effect analyses (Bonferroni-corrected) showed that INS significantly increased from pre- to post-test within the experimental group ( p = 0.013), whereas no significant change was observed in the control group (Fig. 5 A). Similarly, CH13-7 (FPC) exhibited a significant interaction (F (1,86) = 8.041, p = 0.006, partial η 2 = 0.086), driven by a marked INS elevation in the experimental group ( p = 0.047) and a concomitant decrease in the control group ( p = 0.048; Fig. 5 B). At CH17-4 (DLPFC-OFC), a significant interaction effect emerged (F (1,86) = 12.309, p = 0.001, partial η 2 = 0.125). Simple effect analyses indicated that INS significantly increased in the experimental group ( p = 0.009) but decreased in the control group ( p = 0.022). Notably, the experimental group exhibited significantly higher INS than the control group at the post-test ( p = 0.004; Fig. 5 C). For CH17-7 (DLPFC-FPC), the interaction was also statistically significant (F (1,86) = 5.680, p = 0.019, partial η 2 = 0.062). Simple effect analyses demonstrated that INS increased significantly in the experimental group following the intervention ( p = 0.008), while the control group showed no significant change (Fig. 5 D). Finally, CH17-17 (DLPFC) displayed a significant interaction effect (F (1,86) = 7.132, p = 0.009, partial η 2 = 0.077). Follow-up analyses revealed a significant INS increase in the experimental group ( p = 0.001), contrasting with no significant change in the control group. Furthermore, the experimental group’s INS was significantly greater than that of the control group during the post-test ( p = 0.002; Fig. 5 E). Overall, these significant channels exhibited a remarkably consistent pattern, while the experimental group showed a robust upward trend in INS, the control group conversely displayed a systematic decline. The spatial distribution of these contrasting effects is illustrated in Fig. 5 , with comprehensive descriptive statistics provided in the Supplementary Materials. Fig. 5. Open in a new tab INS results during mutual cooperation. ( A ) Location and changes of CH3-3; ( B ) Location and changes of CH13-7; ( C ) Location and changes of CH17-4; ( D ) Location and changes of CH17-7; ( E ) Location and changes of CH17-17 Correlation results of changes caused by intervention Pearson correlation analyses were conducted within the experimental group to examine the relationships between behavioral and neural indicators showing significant exercise-induced changes, specifically the mutual cooperation rate and brain channels. To mitigate Type I error inflation from multiple comparisons, a Bonferroni correction was applied across the 15 pairwise correlations, yielding an adjusted significance threshold of α = 0.0033. The results revealed no significant correlations between the mutual cooperation rate and any brain channels (all p > 0.0033). However, robust inter-channel synchrony was observed, CH17-7 was highly and positively correlated with both CH13-7 ( r = 0.497, p < 0.001) and CH17-17 ( r = 0.601, p < 0.001), both of which survived the Bonferroni adjustment. Discussion Using a randomized controlled design, the present study demonstrated that a single 30-minute session of dyadic rope-skipping significantly enhanced cooperative behavior in female college students with depressive symptoms, as reflected by increased individual and mutual cooperation rates and decreased defection rates. Concurrently, dyadic exercise elicited significant increases in interpersonal neural synchrony across multiple prefrontal subregions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and frontopolar cortex (FPC). At the behavioral level, the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game (PDG) requires participants to balance self-interest against collective benefit: cooperation reflects trust and prosocial motivation, whereas defection reflects risk aversion and self-serving tendencies [ 23 ]. Although defection constitutes a rational strategy for maximizing individual gain, cooperation produces the highest collective payoff [ 51 ]. Individuals with depressive symptoms frequently exhibit heightened self-protective biases and social withdrawal tendencies [ 52 ], which may impede trust formation and reduce cooperative engagement. In the present study, participants who completed the dyadic rope-skipping intervention demonstrated increased cooperation and reduced defection, suggesting a restoration of social motivation and willingness to engage in collaborative behavior. Importantly, the enhancement in mutual cooperation indicates that the intervention fostered not only individual prosocial inclination but also reciprocal trust and behavioral alignment, reflecting a transition from unilateral decision-making to coordinated, mutually beneficial interaction. These findings are consistent with prior evidence that synchronous movement, ranging from simple rhythmic coordination (e.g., clapping or tapping) [ 20 ] to more complex dyadic exercise paradigms [ 19 ], can strengthen interpersonal bonding and promote prosocial behavior. Building on this literature, the current study specifically addressed the social withdrawal and impaired cooperation commonly observed in individuals with depressive symptoms [ 52 , 53 ], introducing for the first time an interactive synchronous exercise, dyadic rope-skipping, and confirming its efficacy in improving cooperative behavior among individuals with depressive symptoms. Prior studies have shown that moderate-intensity exercise can alleviate depressive mood and enhance reward sensitivity [ 54 , 55 ], while elevated positive affect promotes interpersonal trust and prosocial orientation [ 56 ]. Therefore, the enhanced cooperation observed in this study may partly derive from exercise-induced mood improvement and restoration of social motivation, together providing a psychological foundation for the recovery of social functioning in individuals with depressive symptoms. At the neural level, dyadic rope-skipping enhanced INS across multiple prefrontal regions, particularly within the DLPFC, OFC, and FPC. The neurophysiological impact of exercise on the prefrontal cortex provides a mechanistic foundation for these behavioral improvements [ 57 ]. Physical exercise, particularly in a dyadic synchronous context, is known to optimize PFC neural efficiency and metabolic activity, which in turn enhances the executive control and social cognitive processes necessary for complex decision-making [ 55 , 58 ]. By upregulating PFC activation and inter-brain coupling, exercise directly facilitates the integration of social information, thereby translating physiological neural enhancement into higher cooperation rates during the PDG task [ 19 ]. Within the prefrontal cortex, the observed increases in INS in the experimental group were primarily localized to the DLPFC, OFC, and FPC. Functionally, the DLPFC is critically involved in cognitive control and goal-directed regulation of behavior [ 29 ], the OFC plays a central role in reward evaluation and value-based decision-making [ 59 ], and the FPC contributes to higher-order cognitive integration and strategic decision processes [ 60 – 62 ]. Notably, all of these regions have been closely implicated in the onset and progression of depressive symptoms, particularly in relation to impaired cognitive control, altered reward sensitivity, and dysfunctional social decision-making [ 63 – 65 ]. Significant INS increases were primarily concentrated around channel 17, including connections such as CH17-4, CH17-7, and CH17-17. Anatomically, CH17 corresponds to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a key region implicated in executive control, conflict monitoring, and the top-down regulation of goal-directed behavior [ 66 , 67 ]. The DLPFC is also critically involved in modulating self-referential processing and inhibiting maladaptive self-focused biases, functions often disrupted in individuals with depressive symptoms [ 68 , 69 ]. Enhanced synchrony centered on CH17 therefore suggests strengthened shared executive regulation between partners, potentially facilitating coordinated control over self-interest and promoting mutually beneficial decision-making during the PDG task [ 70 ]. Although behavioral changes were not directly correlated with INS alterations, significant inter-channel associations were observed within the prefrontal network. Specifically, INS changes in CH17-7 were strongly correlated with CH13-7 and CH17-17, indicating coherent neural adaptation across lateral prefrontal regions. This pattern suggests that dyadic exercise may induce network-level synchronization within DLPFC-centered circuits, providing a neural basis for enhanced interpersonal alignment even in the absence of a direct brain–behavior correlation. We propose that the efficacy of dyadic rope-skipping arises from its requirement for continuous temporal matching and coordinated action in a highly interactive context, thereby amplifying behavioral coupling and social engagement between partners [ 31 ]. During the exercise, participants must not only focus on their own jumping rhythm but also monitor and adapt to their partner’s movement in real time to maintain synchrony and complete the task collaboratively. This highly coordinated process likely strengthens attentional alignment, emotional resonance, and cooperative intention [ 71 , 72 ], which in turn foster mutual trust and motivation to cooperate [ 24 , 73 ], ultimately leading to higher cooperation and lower defection rates during subsequent social decision-making tasks. Moreover, unlike low-intensity synchronous activities such as simple joint movements [ 74 , 75 ], dyadic rope-skipping involves a moderate level of physical load. This full-body physiological activation may modulate neurotransmitter systems [ 76 , 77 ] and prefrontal functioning [ 78 , 79 ], optimizing affective and motivational states related to social cognition [ 55 , 80 ] and thereby facilitating cooperative performance [ 81 ]. Accordingly, the improvement in cooperative behavior observed here may stem from the synergistic effects of interactive synchrony and physiological activation, offering a novel theoretical framework for understanding how exercise-based interventions promote social recovery through multilevel neural regulation. In conclusion, dyadic rope-skipping, as an activity combining interpersonal synchrony with moderate physical intensity, was found to rapidly enhance cooperative behavior and prefrontal INS in individuals with depressive symptoms. Compared with traditional interventions, this approach is simple, safe, and easy to implement, providing a promising pathway for social rehabilitation in depressive symptoms population. By revealing both behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying synchronous movement induced cooperation enhancement, the present study enriches the intersection between exercise psychology and social neuroscience. Nevertheless, several limitations should be acknowledged. First, participant classification relied on self-reported BDI-II scores without structured clinical interviews. Although a cutoff score ≥ 14 indicates elevated depressive symptoms, the absence of formal diagnostic assessment limits the clinical generalizability of the findings. Second, the study primarily included individuals with mild to moderate depressive symptoms. As symptom severity may influence responsiveness to cooperative interventions, the present results should be interpreted cautiously when extending to individuals with more severe depressive conditions. Third, the control group did not engage in an alternative active physical or interactive task. Thus, while cooperative exercise demonstrated advantages over a sedentary condition, the specific contributions of exercise and interpersonal interaction cannot be fully distinguished within the current design. Future studies incorporating structured psychiatric assessments, recruiting participants across a broader range of symptom severity, and employing multi control conditions would further clarify the clinical applicability and specificity of cooperative exercise effects. Conclusion In summary, the present study provides convergent behavioral and neurophysiological evidence that a single session of dyadic rope-skipping significantly alleviates cooperation deficits in female college students with depressive symptoms. At the behavioral level, the intervention facilitated a strategic shift from defection toward cooperation. At the neural level, these behavioral improvements were accompanied by a robust increase in interpersonal neural synchrony across a prefrontal network encompassing the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and frontopolar cortex. Notably, while exercise-induced behavioral gains were not linearly correlated with neural changes, the strong intrinsic coupling observed among these prefrontal regions suggests a coordinated neural response to synchronous exercise. Collectively, these results not only highlight dyadic exercise as a viable non-pharmacological strategy for functional social recovery, but also offer a neurophysiological basis for leveraging interpersonal exercise to mitigate social deficits among individuals with depressive symptoms. Supplementary Information Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material. Supplementary Material 1 (1.5MB, docx) Acknowledgements We thank all participants in this study for their contributions. Author contributions SYW and LL were responsible for study design, statistical analysis, and manuscript preparation. WHW and MY were responsible for recruiting the participants. JC and BYZ were involved in evolving the ideas and editing the manuscript. JXL and DXG assisted with literature summary and drafted the protocol. All authors have contributed to and approved the final manuscript. Funding This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (No. 21BTY094), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2025ECNU-WLJC001), and the Shanghai Sports Science and Technology Project (No. 26Q010, 2026). Data availability The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate This study was conducted in accordance with the latest Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Human Research Protection Committee of East China Normal University (Approval No. HR498-2020). All participants agreed to take part in the study and signed an informed consent form before the experiment, with no negative consequence for not participating or withdrawing during any part of the study. Research personnel will keep all data anonymous and confidential. All information related to participants will be identifiable by codes known only to the researcher. All data will be stored on a password-protected online account which can only be accessed by the Principal Investigator and Research. Assistants for this project, until 7 years past completion of the study, then the data will be destroyed. After the study period, participants in the control group will be offered the same exercise intervention or psychological counseling services on a voluntary basis. Consent for publication All authors have read and approved the content and agree to submit it for consideration for publication in the journal. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Footnotes Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. References 1. WHO. Depression and other common mental disorders: global health estimates; 2017. 2. Musa A, Ashraf J, Tsai F-J, Abolmagd S, Liu C, Hussain H, Voslarova E, Khalil MA, Wolitzky-Taylor KB, Lee D, Sugar J, Pendi K, Lee J, Abdelmaksoud R, Adel N, Baron D. Depression severity and depression stigma among students a survey of universities in five countries. J Nerv Mental Disease. 2020;208(11):884–9. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ] 3. 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[ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] Associated Data This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article. Supplementary Materials Supplementary Material 1 (1.5MB, docx) Data Availability Statement The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. 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