Recent research into the neuroscience of social interactions between humans has revealed fascinating details of how the brains of friends and family (in scientific terms, brains that “operate at least in part on shared information content”) can synchronise and ‘align’ with each other. So, given the (controversial) results from parapsychology that suggest telepathy and other ‘psi’ talents might be real, is it possible that this ‘neuro-resonance’ can be detected even when two people attempt to mentally interact despite being blocked from doing so via normal sensory means?
That is the question asked in a 2016 paper titled “EEG correlates of social interaction at a distance“. Subject pairs were included based on criteria of (a) mutual friendship of more than a decade, and (b) experience in meditation, in order to maintain prolonged, focused concentration.
The members of each pair were placed in two separate rooms approximately five meters from each other – with appropriate measures taken to block any sharing of sensory information – and their brains were monitored using electroencephalograph (EEG).
The ‘Sender’ was told to relax, think about the ‘Receiver, and simply “mentally transmit what you perceive”. During a 10 minute session, the Sender was given 128 ‘stimulations’ of 1 second duration each, separated by pauses of random length lasting 4 to 6 seconds (in order to avoid predictable rhythms). These stimulations were “from a light signal produced by an arrangement of red LEDs, and a simultaneous 500 Hz sinusoidal audio signal of the same length.”
The ‘Receiver’, sitting in their isolated room, was told to relax and be prepared to “receive stimuli” from their partner: “Your task is to mentally connect with him/her and try to perceive the stimulus he/she is receiving”.
Over three days, data from 25 pairs of subjects was collected. The result: “a weak but robust response” was detected in the EEG activity of the ‘passive’ Receiver, “particularly within 9 – 10 Hz in the Alpha range…this signal was found to be statistically significant”.
The researchers concluded that, while the study was clearly explorative…
…it is in agreement with the results observed in three different experiments by Hinterberger (2008) who observed an increase in the ERPs in the Alpha (8–12 Hz) band only in the related pairs of participants. If further confirmed, these findings would be of huge scientific importance because they provide neurophysiological evidence of a connection – or social interaction – at distance.
I have to say I get a little concerned when I see papers on these sorts of controversial topics say the positive results showed up only “when a new algorithm was applied to the EEG activity”. But certainly an interesting study all the same, worth more detailed and careful investigation.
Link: “EEG correlates of social interaction at a distance”
(via Dr Carlos Alvarado)
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