Brains in Sync is not just between parents and babies

I’m always happy to pass on great info, and this is great info! The full piece "Adult and Baby Brain Sycn-Up During Play" by Liz Fuller-Wright was first published on Jan 9 2020 Princeton University News I’ve included a few snippets below lifted from the full article.

CORE IDEAS/MY TAKE:

1. The brains of babies and an adult playing with them synchronize; with areas of each brain showing that they anticipate and predict the actions of the other
2. This syncing is lost when attention is not directly on each other (eg when the adult tells a story to a third person next to the baby)
3. Surprising to find that areas of the Pre-Frontal Cortex of the baby was more active than expected. This area has strong connection with planning and prediction (and also maintaining attention) - which is thought to be non-existent or not properly developed in babies.

​To me, these findings are not that surprising or even as weird as they may seem at first blush. Neurons within our own brain don't touch each other. Large neural networks interact (e.g. those for processing sound and those for processing light) to build precepts, the Left and Right hemispheres interact across the corpus callosum bridge - but otherwise not at all. All the communication within our brains is across a gap (albeit tiny ones - but might as well be a chasm) and consist of the movement of energy and information from one neuron or neural network to another.  
When two brains communicate the difference is simply a larger gap between signal being sent and received. Where I look and my facial expressions communicate to your mind and mean something, a gap of a few feet and then some additional coding from light into biochemical neural firings is just another form of neural networks communicating. the network may be in different skulls - but they are still communicating. There is some data loss, there is some loss in bandwidth and in attempting to code, transmit, and decode, but it is still simply a transfer of energy and information.  
When two people communicate and are fully present in the communication, the bandwidth between their brains is as open as possible. It is no surprise that the brains synchronize to some degree - they are attending to the same things working on the same project or idea. When one of the people is not fully attentive (as in the experiment above) there is a significant loss in bandwidth for the communication and a corresponding loss in synchronization.
To be sure there is something special about the synchronization between a baby and their primary care giver, but we can take heart that when two grown-ups are fully present and open in communication together they change each others brains - in real time. That is what good coaching does and that is what good leadership does. Another reason why 'being present' is so important to communication.
Do you need more detail on this subject? Head on over to the full article here for more detail and perspective. Afterwards, why not drop me an email to share your thoughts nigel@nigeldonovan.com; or call me on 1300 484 491.