People’s Brains Sync Up When Gaming Together, Even When Nobody’s There : ScienceAlert
It’s been easy to feel disconnected over the past two and a half years, despite all the hours spent doing Zoom trivia and online gaming with friends.
But it turns out that, even when we’re physically alone, our brains may be able to sync up with the minds of others we’re playing with better than expected.
A new study has shown that people playing a cooperative game together online can achieve brainwave synchronization, even when they’re in total isolation.
This type of synchronization is usually associated with social interaction, and is important to a healthy society because it’s linked to better empathy and cooperation.
But this new research suggests it doesn’t only happen when we’re face to face.
“We were able to show that inter-brain phase synchronization can occur without the presence of the other person,” says one of the teamcognitive researcher Valtteri Wikström from the University of Helsinki