Researchers at Cambridge University have found that babies and adults synchronize brain waves through eye contact.
The most surprising finding was that more brain activity was recorded in the brain of the babies as they watched the adult who made eye contact, while not directly facing forward.
Researchers attribute the finding to the novelty of the position, since a baby might normally expect someone facing away to not be looking at them.
In the first experiment, a baby was shown three videos: One showed an adult singing while facing forward and making eye contact with the baby; another was of an adult not directly facing the baby but still making eye contact; the third video showed an adult not facing the baby or making any eye contact.
The second part of the study consisted of an adult sitting face to face with a baby. Brain waves were measured while the adult looked directly at the baby, and while the adult sat with their gaze averted. When the adult and baby sat with their gaze locked, Alpha and Theta brain waves started to synchronize.
Leong pondered on some beneficial implications of her team’s findings.
“This mechanism could prepare parents and babies to communicate, by synchronising when to speak and when to listen, which would also make learning more effective.”
Infants made a greater effort to communicate when their gazes were locked, judging by an increase in vocalizations, according to the University of Cambridge.
An author of the study, Dr. Sam Wass, suggests jokingly of a much larger discovery.
“We don’t know what it is, yet, that causes this synchronous brain activity. We’re certainly not claiming to have discovered telepathy!” he said, according to the University of Cambridge.
He said that eye gaze alone doesn’t explain the amount of synchronized brain activity that arises, nor does it explain the increased vocalization.