Network Physiology and Social Systems: Synchrony, Information Flow, Multi-scale Coupling and Collective Dynamics as Signatures of Physiological and Social Interactions

Network Physiology deals with physiological systems that function as an integrated, adaptive networks, in which dynamic interactions among organs and subsystems change across time scales and contexts. In parallel, Social Physics and computational social science have provided quantitative frameworks to characterize social interaction, collective behavior, contagion, and coordination as emergent dynamics on social networks.This Research Topic aims to bring these perspectives together by including social group interactions as an additional layer of network dynamics, interacting bidirectionally with within-person organ networks.We welcome contributions that advance the theory, methods, and translational applications of multiscale coupled networks, linking physiological systems (e.g., brain–heart–respiratory networks) with interpersonal and group processes (e.g., speech, movement, leadership, cohesion, stress contagion, cooperation).Recent advances in wearable sensing, hyperscanning, ecological data capture, and time-varying network inference now make it feasible to quantify how physiological networks reorganize during real-world social interaction and to test mechanistic hypotheses connecting physiological coordination with collective outcomes.The topic will provide a focused venue for work that:· Develops conceptual bridges between Network Physiology and Social Physics (shared principles of coupling, multiscale organization, adaptation, and critical transitions);· Introduces robust quantitative methods for interpersonal and group-level coupling across multimodal time series;· Builds multi-layer network models that connect within-person physiological networks to between-person interaction networks;· Demonstrates relevance for clinical, behavioral, and digital health applications, including mental health, education, neuroergonomics, rehabilitation, and digital therapeutics.Submitted manuscripts may address (but are not limited to) the following questions:· How can we best quantify interpersonal and group physiological coupling while controlling for shared stimuli and task structure?· Which coupling signatures are most reproducible across contexts (rest, collaboration, competition, therapy, learning)?· How do social roles (leadership/followership), hierarchy, and communication patterns shape physiological network organization?· Can group-level outcomes (cohesion, performance, learning, resilience) be predicted from multi-layer coupling linking physiology, behavior, and social structure?· Do interaction episodes exhibit critical transitions, bursty dynamics, or rare-event signatures that reorganize physiological networks?We invite original research, methods, reviews, hypotheses and theory, and perspective articles in areas such as:1) Physiological coupling and interpersonal synchrony2) Multilayer and network-of-networks models3) Social modulation of physiology4) Speech, movement, and behavioral synchrony5) Methods, benchmarking, and reproducibility6) Criticality and transitions in social physiology7) Translational and applied settings Topic editors: Herbert F Jelinek, Ibrahim Elfadel, Matjaž Perc, Plamen Ch. Ivanov Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78264/network-physiology-and-social-systems-synchrony-information-flow-multi-scale-coupling-and-collective-dynamics-as-signatures-of-physiological-and-social-interactions