On the same wavelength—Do parents and children understand each other better if their brains are “in sync”?

Humans are social beings by nature. We often (unconsciously) imitate each other’s behaviors—think of yawning or laughing. Recent research shows that this imitation extends even beyond actions; it happens in our brains, too. State-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques reveal that interpersonal neural synchrony, where the brain activities of two or more interacting people align, is important for understanding others, starting from early childhood. In our article, we explore how interpersonal neural synchrony occurs during parent-child interactions and how it relates to behavior, relationship quality, and gender.

This article was written by Dr Pascal Vrticka and Dr Trinh Nguyen and published in The Inquisitive Mind in December 2024. To continue reading, please follow this link.

The article is based upon a previously published article in German from 2022.