Research Hit: Weak Social Connections Increase Brain Synchrony

In a surprise, it was discovered that weak social connections show higher brain synchrony than strong social connections.

Remind me, us, what brain synchrony is?

Inter-brain synchrony, as it should be called, is a process that at first glance sounds amazing and fascinating. I’ve reported on this previously a number of times.

It is the process whereby different people’s brains synchronise when doing activities together. This means that their brain patterns look remarkably similar. This also explains that “being on the same wavelength” feeling, or being collectively in the zone, for example at a concert.

Research has shown that this can predict many things such as team effectiveness in business, and collective positive ratings of a live music performance, or even interaction between baby and mother.

Yes, that does sound amazing! So wouldn’t better friends have higher brain synchrony?

Well, yes, and this is why this research is fascinating. Yuto Kurihara et al. of Waseda University in Tokyo Japan investigated the differences in brain synchrony doing a simple task between people who knew each other and those that didn’t.