Social brain research offers new insights into how strangers become friends
Two ETH Zurich studies tracked brain activity of younger and older adults over six weeks of collaborative drawing. The research found that inter‑brain synchrony did not uniformly increase with familiarity; same‑age pairs showed rising synchrony while cross‑generational pairs saw a decline. The findings suggest that mutual prediction and life experience shape neural alignment during social interaction.
Two ETH Zurich studies tracked brain activity of younger and older adults over six weeks of collaborative drawing. The research found that inter‑brain synchrony did not uniformly increase with familiarity; same‑age pairs showed rising synchrony while cross‑generational pairs saw a decline. The findings suggest that mutual prediction and life experience shape neural alignment during social interaction.
The study demonstrates how wearable brain sensors and longitudinal data can inform AI models of human social dynamics, a key area for Swiss AI research.
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