Brain to Brain Communication
Objective
- Explore a yet unconfirmed phenomenon in exploratory social neuroscience (multi-brain neuroscience) research of remote brain to brain entanglement and its implications for the nature of consciousness
Hypotheses
- In bonded pairs of human participants not collocated and without shared stimulus, a stimulus applied to one will present a concurrent synchronous response in the other in fMRI (primary measure), heart rate variability, and galvanic skin response (exploratory measures) in a way that goes beyond memory effect. This remote, statistically significant response will be stronger in bonded pairs than strangers.
Participants
- 100 pairs of closely bonded dyads (parent-child, couples in a romantic relationship)
Outcomes
- Conduct the most rigorous research ever done on brain to brain synchronization, exceeding others in sample size (200 vs. dozens), sample composition (controlling for social bonds), stimulus sophistication and superior control (intermittent light stimulation), and quality of encephalograpy data (first ever using high density EEG).
- Build the world’s first and largest open-access dataset of participant longitudinal multitask EEG, HRV, and GSR recordings in face to face and remote settings in order to help further promulgate rigorous research in the nascent field of social neuroscience
- Create a statistical computational model correcting for factors like shared environment and tasks and tested with simulations in order to separate signal from noise. Develop the most up to date algorithm of interbrain communication normalization and detection, validated by deep/machine learning on a high performance computing cluster in order to better decode and predict multi-brain interaction
- With the latest in hyperscanning technology, confirm the anomalous brain to brain synchronization effect seen in prior exploratory studies