'Hyperscans' Show How Brains Sync As People Interact (scientificamerican.com) 38
"A growing cadre of neuroscientists is using sophisticated technology -- and some very complicated math -- to capture what happens in one brain, two brains, or even 12 or 15 at a time when their owners are engaged in eye contact, storytelling, joint attention focused on a topic or object, or any other activity that requires social give and take," reports Scientific American. "Although the field of interactive social neuroscience is in its infancy, the hope remains that identifying the neural underpinnings of real social exchange will change our basic understanding of communication and ultimately improve education or inform treatment of the many psychiatric disorders that involve social impairments." Here's an excerpt from the report: [T]he first study to successfully monitor two brains at the same time took place nearly 20 years ago. Physicist Read Montague, now at Virginia Tech, and his colleagues put two people in separate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines and observed their brain activity as they engaged in a simple competitive game in which one player (the sender) transmitted a signal about whether he or she had just seen the color red or green and the other player (the receiver) had to decide if the sender was telling the truth or lying. Correct guesses resulted in rewards. Montague called the technique hyperscanning, and his work proved it was possible to observe two brains at once.
Initially, Montague's lead was followed mostly by other neuroeconomists rather than social neuroscientists. But the term hyperscanning is now applied to any brain imaging research that involves more than one person. Today the techniques that fit the bill include electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Use of these varied techniques, many of them quite new, has broadened the range of possible experiments and made hyperscanning less cumbersome and, as a consequence, much more popular. The report also mentions a study from earlier this year that "used hyperscanning to show that eye contact prepares the social brain to empathize by activating the same areas of each person's brain simultaneously: the cerebellum, which helps predict the sensory consequences of actions, and the limbic mirror system, a set of brain areas that become active both when we move any part of the body (including the eyes) and when we observe someone else's movements."
Initially, Montague's lead was followed mostly by other neuroeconomists rather than social neuroscientists. But the term hyperscanning is now applied to any brain imaging research that involves more than one person. Today the techniques that fit the bill include electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Use of these varied techniques, many of them quite new, has broadened the range of possible experiments and made hyperscanning less cumbersome and, as a consequence, much more popular. The report also mentions a study from earlier this year that "used hyperscanning to show that eye contact prepares the social brain to empathize by activating the same areas of each person's brain simultaneously: the cerebellum, which helps predict the sensory consequences of actions, and the limbic mirror system, a set of brain areas that become active both when we move any part of the body (including the eyes) and when we observe someone else's movements."
Decades later... (Score:5, Funny)
2049: At long last, after decades of hyperscans and analysis, scientists acknowledge that we still have no understanding of what happens to brains in committees.
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2049: scientists acknowledge that we still have no understanding of what happens to brains in committees
Yes, we do, they released a picture of an active committee meeting yesterday -- it's just that the meeting is taking place in galaxy M87. It's another perk of management since the Caribbean was already booked.
So it's already that big with just the executive Vice Presidents -- it really takes a lot of brains to be that dense. Just wait for the CEO to appear.
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This
Is that why I feel dumber when I talk to people? (Score:1)
Like walking through molasses.
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Also (Score:1)
Not mentioned in that article but the same technique will highlight differences in the brains of convicted criminals, psychopaths, pedeophiles and those with a predisposition to violence are really wired differently to the rest of us.
Re: Welcome to the brave new age (Score:2)
the best way would be to train them to not be criminals, most people in jail today didnâ(TM)t wouldnâ(TM)t have commit a crime if circumstances were different.
locking people up is a doubly tremendous waste of a countryâ(TM)s resources: the cost, and the people themselves
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Exactly. And when the first comment said:
"the same technique will highlight differences in the brains of convicted criminals, psychopaths, pedeophiles and those with a predisposition to violence are really wired differently to the rest of us."
He's wrong 99% of the time and more, because the differences are hardwired but 'soft' wired through development.
"Human's are the product of their social experience, their education, and the contacts they have with those who we all share the world with"
Changes happen t
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correction
"because the differences ***aren't*** hardwired but 'soft' wired through development"
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While checking for comments this morning I was surprised to see that the user I quoted had actually said "wired", and that the idea of hardwired wasn't implied by what he wrote. My assumptions of context and things like his intentions made me 'see' what wasn't there, making my comment more about my interpretations than about what he actually wrote, which I don't disagree with.
Even though I often see others doing this, I have trouble noticing when I do it myself.
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Carl Panzram killed 20 people, and escaped jail on many occasions. He grew tired of the police trying to gather evidence for him, and killed his 21st person, in prison, in front of an audience. The jury took 45 minutes to sentence him to death. His comment to reporters was "I am satisfied with the verdict."
As Carl sat on Death Row, an anti-death penalty group tried to get him a stay of execution. Carl was pissed off about this and sent them a letter asking them to stop.
"I look forward to a seat in the el
Sci-Fi Version - Political Perfection (Score:4, Funny)
2024
With the "leak" of 80 million Hyperscans, the Party knows how to interact with people effectively on an individual level.
The stolen, leaked, or just scraped social media info provided the context to supplement the interaction. This provided insights beyond the individual, providing geographic, class based, racial based, and down to the neighborhood preferential messages.
When talking to a group, the Party adjusted the message utilizing the aggregate data as needed, it's about who and where and how - it defines the best message.
But being up close is what scores points and gets on the news.
Do I shake someone's hand (are they comfortable with that?) or just politely say "Hello" with a gesture?
Do I kiss the baby, hug the baby, brush her forehead, or just say "That's a beautiful baby"?
Do I go for a hug (photo op) or just wink and ensure the person that the oil industry will be growing?
The augmented reality, powered by an AI, combined all of the factors, letting the Candidates speak to and interact with both groups and individuals in the most persuasive way.
The Party won the elections easily.
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It is not a complete scam, but it is very tricky to interpret the results and many (most?) of the people working in the field are just not smart enough and at the same time too arrogant to see that. Dunning-Kruger effect at work. The paper you reference is by some of the few good neuroscientists. They area rare, but they exist.
Oh, wonderful (Score:4, Insightful)
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Indeed.
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Do you also believe the earth is flat, or are you more leaning towards an anti-vaxxer stance?
D&D / group storytelling (Score:3)
Dungeons and Dragons has helped many a nerd or nerdette learn to communicate more effectively with members of their peer group
Neuro-"scientists" can use complicated math? (Score:2)
News to me. Except for a small group of them, they generally do not even seem to be able to to meaningful experiments and their models seem to be extremely simplistic: https://journals.plos.org/plos... [plos.org]
Maybe if they made less grande declarations and did actual science instead, there would be something useful from that field. But that may still take a while.
joint attention is a big deal (Score:2)
I consider psychometrics as largely valid, in its modern form, unlike many critics clinging to the Flynn affect or other small anomaly.
But I would say we remain far too fixed on isolated intelligence (all the better for picking winners, which we so love to do).
How much of our intelligence is embedded in our relationship to our physical and social environments is vastly underestimated by most people. This needs to change, and finally a research avenue capable of moving the rock.