Synchronization of brain activity between two people can be observed when they interact together. Neuroscience seeks to understand the mechanisms hiding behind this alignment. Gestures, gaze and touch would play an important role.
The human brain is able to synchronize with external signals, for example at a sound rate. Using an electroencephalogram, researchers have noticed that neuronal activity, which works by oscillation, can change in order to calculate itself on the rhythm of a stimulus.
New studies suggest that it also works between two people: when they interact with each other, their brain activity can synchronize. To study this phenomenon, the researchers record two people at the same time while they perform the same task. The goal is to observe how and if the brains really align.
This synchronization is double -edged. One can imagine manipulating the reaction of people. We have to be very careful
“A major question in neuroscience is how information is transmitted to a person in realistic situations. In the laboratory, we have very stereotypical, very controlled phenomena. But it is not representative of our way of learning in everyday life,” said in the program CQFD Micah Murray, professor in neuroscience at CHUV.
If we have observed brains to activate together, we do not yet fully understand the mechanisms hiding behind. “We do not know if we synchronize ourselves because there is a real inter-person communication or if it is thanks to a ‘conductor’, a stimulus common to the two people,” explains Micah Murray.
“The stimulus can be heartbeat, eye movements … It can be full of things in the environment. At this stage, we do not necessarily know. However, if we disturb or disturb communication, we see a change in the two heads caused by this disturbance.”
Direct communication between brains?
Normally, if two or more people see or hear the same stimulus in the same environment, for example a conductor who uses his stick to coordinate musicians, everyone will coordinate in this gesture, recalls the scientific and academic director of the Center for Research and Innovation The Sense.
“Now, we can ask ourselves the question of whether there is a communication directly between brains, and if so, what signal will give. We must lift the ambiguity on these two possibilities. Is it the conductor who makes all the communication, or do the two musicians communicate directly with each other?”
This would mean that someone who does not perceive the stimuli of a common environment with another person could use their reactions to adapt to their brain.
Importance of touch
Can some people be more synchronized than others, depending on their history, their bond, their emotional state? “We do not yet have enough data to be able to assert it, but I imagine yes”, dare Micah Murray.
He specifies: “Dancers or athletes are for example very synchronized, because they have a great sensitivity to the temporality of things in the environment. And conversely, people who have less sensitivity, less skills, or even sometimes pathologies, we see that they have less synchronization with the stimuli of their environment, and consequently, less synchronization with others.
The transmission of information between two people goes through a loop, sometimes vicious and sometimes virtuous, between our brain, our senses and our behaviors
A study On mothers and their infants shows that the more tactile their interactions, the more the brains of the mother and the child synchronized. “It shows that there is the possibility of using touch to facilitate this synchronization between people”, analyzes Micah Murray. He specifies that a painful touch or an environment with too much stimuli could alter this impact in the brains.
Persuasion
Beyond touch, does the quality of the link between two people have an importance on their ability to synchronize their brain? “It is still too early to achieve this type of very strong conclusions,” nuances the researcher. The bridge between the brains is nevertheless certainly made by our senses: our gaze, our voice, our gestures.
“The transmission of information between two people involves a loop, sometimes vicious and sometimes virtuous, between our brain, our senses and our behavior. When we communicate between us, we make gestures. There is a temporality, a way of looking at, which induces a reaction in the brains of other people and which can allow better communication.”
Our ability to induce these synchronizations by our gestures or our gaze helps to convince the person opposite. It is sort of charisma, explains Micah Murray. “This synchronization is double -edged. We can imagine manipulating the reaction of people. We must be very careful,” concludes the researcher.
Radio Field: Ardit Shabani
Version web: Antoine Schaub
