Brain Sync: How Teams Think as One
Did you know that your brain literally syncs with others when you do things together—and that this can boost your team’s performance? But does brain synchronization also happen when playing video games, and if so, what causes it?
• When people engage in activities (e.g., rituals or physical activities), their brains synchronize (brain waves).
• "Collaboration in the task was associated with higher synchrony in the alpha, beta, and gamma bands..." [1]
• Playing video games together also synchronizes brains.
• Increased alpha and gamma brain waves were associated with higher team performance.
• Brain synchronization declined over time (during gameplay), likely due to cognitive attention being shifted towards playing.
🧠 How Do Brains Synchronize?
"Interpersonal synchronization occurs when individuals perform simultaneous or closely timed actions together." [1]
When people engage in activities, often used in rituals, this interpersonal synchronization occurs, and has been linked with social closeness, a sense of joint agency, similarity of flow states, and cooperation. It has been shown that this type of synchronization has many benefits. For instance, better team performance can be predicted by this inter-brain synchrony.
However, it is unknown if playing video games together leads to a synchronization of brains. As it is common today in the world of online gaming, the two players were physically isolated, meaning sitting in different rooms and unable to communicate face-to-face.
"We hypothesized that shared attention, interaction, and cooperation in the real-time online game would produce inter-brain synchrony..." [1]
The researchers conducted an experiment, including 42 participants. Each two-player team played a virtual racing game together, in which one player controlled of the steering wheel (left and right) and the other was responsible for controlling the gas pedal (accelerating and decelerating). This forced them to coordinate without any direct communication.
Before playing, the players had to complete some tests and fill out a questionnaire. During gameplay, the participants' brain waves were recorded using EEG. The game is shown in the image below—if this game isn't esports-ready I don't know what is.
🔗 Did It Work?
"Collaboration in the task was associated with higher synchrony in the alpha, beta, and gamma bands..." [1]
Did it work? The short answer is yes! Let's dive into the details. First, playing video games together indeed synchronizes you and your buddies' brains—I leave it up to you to decide if that's a good thing. Second, the synchrony between each pair of players declined over time, arguably due to increased cognitive demands during gameplay. Third, the researchers also found that:
- Alpha synchrony was negatively associated with team's mean visuospatial test scores—a skill used to identify, integrate, and analyze space and visual forms, details, structures etc. in 2D or 3D. In other words, higher scores of visuospatial skills meant a lower level of synchrony. This makes sense. If you're a better gamer, you don't need to synchronize as much.
- Teams with higher alpha and gamma synchrony scores performed better. The researchers suggest that the reason behind it is that:
"stronger shared attention on the object being coordinated would likely enable faster reaction times to the actions of the other player, and thereby lead to better results." [1]
Have a great week ahead, everybody. Best,
Christian 🙂
