Optimizing collaborative behavior is crucial in educational activities, directly improving academic performance, social skills, and social-emotional learning for both teachers and students. In an effort to decipher the mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of collaborative learning, educators and neuroscientists have initiated the collection and analysis of learners’ physiological parameters during such collaborative exercises. Considering both accuracy and portability, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has emerged as a viable tool. The current study aims to understand its potential for studying neural mechanisms of collaboration. Sixty articles were reviewed from three databases to address three research questions: (1) What are the characteristics (i.e., number of publications per year and for different age groups of participants, sample size, and the usage of fNIRS devices) of fNIRS-based collaboration research? (2) What experimental designs are commonly employed in fNIRS-based collaboration research? (3) What is the relationship between neural activity and interactive behavioral performance? The results provide a comprehensive descriptive statistical analysis of the literature characteristics and offer a detailed summary of the research methods employed, including the experimental protocol, task, and duration. Importantly, these findings demonstrate compelling evidence of inter-brain synchrony (IBS), indicating synchronized cortical activities between interacting individuals, and it was observed in the prefrontal cortex or temporoparietal cortex during collaboration and interaction tasks, highlighting the crucial role of these brain regions in facilitating collaborative behavior. The finding of this review advanced our understanding of how fNIRS is ultilized in collaborative research and offer practical implications for designing educational interventions or programs aimd at enhancing collaborative behaviors and their associated benefits.

优化协作行为对于教育活动至关重要，它可以直接提高教师和学生的学业成绩、社交技能和社交情感学习。为了破译协作学习有效性的潜在机制，教育工作者和神经科学家已经开始收集和分析学习者在此类协作练习期间的生理参数。考虑到准确性和便携性，功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）已成为一种可行的工具。目前的研究旨在了解其研究协作神经机制的潜力。回顾了三个数据库中的 60 篇文章，以解决三个研究问题：（1）基于 fNIRS 的特征是什么（即每年的出版物数量和不同年龄组的参与者、样本量和 fNIRS 设备的使用）合作研究？ (2) 基于 fNIRS 的合作研究通常采用哪些实验设计？ （3）神经活动与交互行为表现之间有何关系？结果对文献特征进行了全面的描述性统计分析，并详细总结了所采用的研究方法，包括实验方案、任务和持续时间。重要的是，这些发现证明了脑间同步（IBS）的令人信服的证据，表明相互作用的个体之间的同步皮层活动，并且在协作和交互任务期间在前额叶皮层或颞顶叶皮层中观察到，突出了这些大脑区域在促进协作行为。本综述的发现加深了我们对如何在协作研究中利用 fNIRS 的理解，并为设计旨在增强协作行为及其相关效益的教育干预措施或计划提供了实际意义。