A new study by Australian researchers shows that in moments of collaboration, people literally synchronize with each other at a neurological level.
Humans are incredibly social beings. We rely on interactions in many aspects of our lives: everyday communication, parenting, professional activities, and more.
Collaboration requires following the same instructions, achieving a common goal, and sharing a similar way of thinking. It turns out that when people work together on a task, their brains synchronize.
However, it’s hard to say whether this synchronization occurs because participants are working on the same task or simply because they are working together.
Cognitive neuroscientist Denise Moerel from Western Sydney University led the research that demonstrated what actually happens.
What Did the Scientists Discover?
The research team involved 24 pairs of volunteers in the experiment. Each pair had to decide how they would sort shapes displayed on a computer screen, using black-and-white patterns of varying contrast and size.
Initially, the researchers allowed both partners to communicate and collaborate. But after the participants agreed on the rules, they worked without speaking to each other. Each person focused on the computer screen, which displayed a shared workspace for sorting the shapes. Only occasionally were they allowed to take breaks and communicate, as reported by Science Alert.
During the continuous collaboration, the researchers recorded the participants’ brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG), tracking the consistency of their neural responses.
When the scientists compared the EEG data between pairs, the experiment became even more intriguing.
In the first 45–180 milliseconds after a shape appeared on the screen, all participants exhibited similar brain activity as they tackled the same task. However, after 200 milliseconds, the situation changed. Brain activity remained synchronized within pairs but not across the entire group. This synchronization among partners intensified as the experiment progressed: their brains became increasingly aligned.
These results suggest that the close synchronization of brain activity among pairs is likely not just due to the shared system within which all participants were operating while completing the task. There was something particularly significant about working with a partner.
The findings indicate that social interactions shape the brain’s neural mechanisms. The findings open possibilities for group interaction, communication, and decision-making.
The study’s results were published in the journal PLOS Biology.
