Dartmouth Events

Title: The brain basis of real-world social interaction: Connecting art, education, neuroscience, and brains

Abstract: Neuroscience research has produced tremendous insight into how the human brain supports learning and social dynamics. Still, laboratory-generated findings do not always straightforwardly generalize to real-world environments. We used low-cost portable electroencephalogram (EEG) systems in a series of research projects carried out in real-world environments, in collaboration with scientists, artists, and educators. For example, we partnered with New York City high schools to collect EEG data from students as they engaged in natural classroom interactions, and found that brain-to-brain synchrony among students predicted classroom social dynamics and student engagement, two factors that have been found critical for student learning. In another project, 3,000 museum visitors participated in the Mutual Wave Machine, an interactive art/neuroscience installation that translates brainwave synchrony between pairs of people into light patterns. Here, we found that empathic disposition was a strong predictor of brain-to brain synchrony during face-to-face interaction, in addition to focus and mood. Taken together, our multidisciplinary approach may provide a potential new avenue to investigate social interactions outside of the laboratory.