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Plain English Summary
Can one person's brain activity ripple across to someone else sitting in a completely separate, soundproofed room? This study says maybe -- but with a very quiet signal. Six experienced meditators formed 25 sender-receiver pairs. Senders got hit with flashes of light and sound while receivers sat isolated. Standard brain-wave averaging (ERP) found absolutely nothing in the receivers. But a clever new algorithm called GW6, which looks at correlations across brain electrodes, picked up a tiny but statistically significant blip in the receivers' alpha waves -- the rhythm linked to relaxed awareness. We're talking about a 0.5% correlation change, so genuinely tiny. Intriguingly, the receiver response came about 700 milliseconds later, suggesting they weren't reacting to the stimulus itself but tracking the sender's shifted mental state. Major caveats: only six people, they were hand-picked meditators, and the frequency band was chosen after the fact -- all of which means these results need much bigger, pre-registered follow-ups before anyone should get too excited.
Research Notes
Key innovation is the GW6 correlation algorithm, which detects a receiver signal invisible to classical ERP averaging. Builds on the group's 2014 F1000Research confirmatory study (not yet in catalog). Very small N (6 subjects), non-random participant selection, and post-hoc frequency band selection are major caveats. Relevant to the brain-to-brain EEG cluster and the broader telepathy debate.
Investigates whether EEG activity in a sensorily isolated 'receiver' correlates with stimulation experienced by a distant 'sender'. Six meditation-experienced participants formed 25 sender-receiver pairs over three days. Senders received 128 light-and-audio stimulations; receivers sat in separate soundproofed rooms. Traditional ERP averaging found a clear response in senders but nothing in receivers. A novel inter-electrode correlation algorithm (GW6) detected a weak but significant receiver response in the 9-10 Hz alpha band (p = 0.002-0.003, Monte Carlo) and at 8-12 Hz (p = 0.04). Effect was approximately 0.5% correlation change. Receiver latency of ~700 ms suggested tracking of the sender's altered state rather than the stimulus.
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Cites
- Correlations between brain electrical activities of two spatially separated human subjects β Wackermann, JiΕΓ (2003)
- Evidence of Correlated Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Signals Between Distant Human Brains β Standish, Leanna J (2003)
- Electroencephalographic Evidence of Correlated Event-Related Signals Between the Brains of Spatially and Sensory Isolated Human Subjects β Standish, Leanna J (2004)
- Event-Related Electroencephalographic Correlations Between Isolated Human Subjects β Radin, Dean I (2004)
- Evidence for Correlations Between Distant Intentionality and Brain Function in Recipients: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Analysis β Achterberg, J (2005)
- Correlations Between the EEGs of Two Spatially Separated Subjects β A Replication Study β Ambach, Wolfgang (2008)
- Searching for Neuronal Markers of Psi: A Summary of Three Studies Measuring Electrophysiology in Distant Participants β Hinterberger, T (2010)
- Replicable Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evidence of Correlated Brain Signals Between Physically and Sensory Isolated Subjects β Richards, Todd L (2005)
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π Cite this paper
Giroldini, William, Pederzoli, Luciano, Bilucaglia, Marco, Caini, Patrizio, Ferrini, Alessandro, Melloni, Simone, Prati, Elena, Tressoldi, Patrizio E (2016). EEG Correlates of Social Interaction at Distance. F1000Research. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.6755.5
@article{tressoldi_2016_brain_interaction,
title = {EEG Correlates of Social Interaction at Distance},
author = {Giroldini, William and Pederzoli, Luciano and Bilucaglia, Marco and Caini, Patrizio and Ferrini, Alessandro and Melloni, Simone and Prati, Elena and Tressoldi, Patrizio E},
year = {2016},
journal = {F1000Research},
doi = {10.12688/f1000research.6755.5},
}