Researchers demonstrated that the brains of people playing an online games together were synchronized without physical presence. This synchronization has been linked with empathy and cooperation in face-to-face situations.
- Study results show inter-brain synchronization during online gaming.
- If there is empathy and cooperation, inter-brain synchronization is activated.
- The subjects were tested by placing them in two separate soundproof rooms.
Researchers at the University of Helsinki have demonstrated that the brains of participants synchronize while playing online games, even when the participants are not physically present in the same room.
Inter-brain synchronization happens when two people who are interacting socially become synced in certain emotional and physiological centers in the brain. Such synchronization can produce better performance, problem-solving, and communication.
Online Games & Brain Synchronization
“We were able to show that inter-brain phase synchronization can occur without the presence of the other person,” says one of the team, cognitive researcher Valtteri Wikström from the University of Helsinki in Finland. This opens up a possibility to investigate the role of this social brain mechanism in online interaction.
In the study, 42 Finnish students were put into pairs and asked to play a specially designed online games where they worked together to control a racing car around four different tracks.
One controlled the speed and one controlled the direction, and the participants would switch roles after completing a run, playing each track twice. The two participants were split up into two separate soundproof rooms, so they had no physical interaction.
They also weren’t communicating with each other outside of the actions performed in the game, so there was no headset involved.
At the same time, both students were hooked up to EEG (Electroencephalography) scanners, so the researchers could monitor their real-time brain activity through electrical signals and see how well it matched each other’s. What the team found was that the players actually achieved brainwave synchronization across alpha, beta, and gamma waves.
we already know that gaming can help our brain practice some vital decision-making skills. And it’s promising to now know there may be opportunities in the future to use gaming to make us all feel a little more in sync, and perhaps also more empathetic to each other.
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“This study shows that inter-brain synchronization happens also during cooperative online gaming, and that it can be reliably measured,” says Wikström.
Toward Better Online Interaction
“Developing aspects in online games that lead to increased synchronization and empathy can have a positive impact even outside of gaming.”
The next step is to find a way to measure the quality of these online interactions, and also figure out which aspects of working together in an online game are best promoting the type of connectedness we get from social interaction.
This is important, particularly in a world where more and more of our learning and connection is inevitably happening online – and yet we still don’t fully understand the implications of that for social brain development.
“If we can build interactive digital experiences which activate fundamental mechanisms of empathy, it can lead to better social relationships, well-being, and productivity online,” says cognitive neuroscientist Katri Sarrikivi, who managed the research project.
Reference: “Inter-brain synchronization occurs without physical co-presence during cooperative online gaming” by Valtteri Wikström, Katri Saarikivi, Mari Falcon, Tommi Makkonen, Silja Martikainen, Vesa Putkinen, Benjamin Ultan Cowley and Mari Tervaniemi, 20 July 2022, Neuropsychologia.
