Musicians’ Brainwaves Synchronize

A new study that when two guitarists play the same tune, their brainwaves become more synchronized. By recording electrical activity in the brain of eight pairs of guitarists, German scientists have shown that not only the guitars are playing in time, but that the musician’s minds are also corresponding. Ulman Lindenberger, from the Institute For Human Development in Berlin, says that:

“Our findings show that interpersonally coordinated actions are preceded and accompanied by between-brain oscillatory couplings.”

Using a technique called Electroencephalography, scientists recorded similarities between the brain waves of the jamming musicians. The results conclude that the correlation increased significantly as each pair listened to prepared melodies and again when the cooperative performance began.

“Although individual’s brains have been observed getting tuning into music before, this is the first time musicians have been measured jointly in concert,” said Lindenberger. The study sheds light on how the human mind has a deep connection to shared music, and on how our brains interact in social situations. The synergy we attribute to bands and orchestras goes further than just a random “click” between musicians.

Check this video of the testing and brainwaves recording, it shows two musicians playing the short jazz fusion melody which the eight pairs of guitarists repeated a total 60 times. The results are irrefutable, but don’t indicate a direct cause for the process, which could vary between: responses to the beat of the metronome and music, watching other musicians’ movements and listening to each others’ music, or brain synchronization before they even start playing.

Do our minds synchronize in other circumstances? What more can music tell us about social interactions?

Photo via i.realone.com
Source: BBC, Musicradar