Brain synchronization during social interaction tied to mental resilience, study says
Baku, January 6, AZERTAC
A new University of Haifa study, shared exclusively with The Press Service of Israel, suggests that the degree to which two strangers’ brains synchronize during an initial conversation may help predict their resilience to trauma later in life, according to TPS-IL.
Researchers found that individuals whose brain activity showed stronger synchrony with an unfamiliar conversation partner during an initial social interaction were more psychologically resilient months later, following exposure to the October 7 terror attacks and the ensuing war. Their findings were published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Translational Psychiatry.
Interpersonal brain synchrony refers to the alignment of neural activity patterns between people during social interaction. Previous research has shown that such synchrony emerges naturally during conversation and is linked to empathy, emotional attunement, and social connection. It is also understood to reflect a stable individual tendency, with some people more readily aligning their attention and emotional processing with others.
According to the researchers, higher levels of interpersonal brain synchrony measured before the outbreak of violence were associated with lower levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression, and general distress afterward, even when accounting for the degree of exposure to traumatic events.
“This is a biological and social indicator that can help predict who is more resilient to trauma,” lead researcher Dr. Oded Mayo of the university’s Psychology Dept. told TPS-IL. “It also opens the door to interventions that could strengthen social synchrony and, in turn, support psychological resilience.”
The current study set out to test whether this tendency could serve as a predictor of mental resilience following trauma.
Ninety-eight participants were paired with strangers and asked to take part in a brief introductory conversation. During the interaction, the brain activity of both participants was measured simultaneously using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, a non-invasive imaging method that tracks changes in oxygenated hemoglobin in brain regions associated with empathy, emotional regulation, and social communication.
The researchers analyzed synchrony across six predefined brain areas. These measurements were taken months before the October 7 attacks.
After the outbreak of the war, the research team contacted the same participants and asked them to complete questionnaires assessing their personal exposure to the terror attacks and the severity of psychological symptoms, including post-traumatic stress, depression, and general distress.
By comparing the pre-war brain synchrony data with post-war mental health outcomes, the researchers were able to assess whether early neural alignment during a simple social encounter predicted later resilience.
The results showed that participants with higher levels of interpersonal brain synchrony during the initial conversation experienced a weaker link between trauma exposure and psychological symptoms. In other words, similar levels of exposure had a smaller negative mental health impact on individuals whose brains had synchronized more strongly with others beforehand.
Mayo acknowledged that the findings cannot establish causality, but do point to a clear correlation and predictive link between higher brain synchrony and greater psychological resilience.
“We cannot say anything definitive about causality,” he told TPS-IL, “but the data indicate that brain synchrony can serve as a predictor of who is more resilient.”
The findings suggest that the ability to naturally connect with others at a neural level may support emotional regulation and resilience during periods of extreme stress.
According to Mayo, these insights could help explain why people exposed to similar traumatic events respond so differently, and may open new avenues for identifying vulnerability and resilience factors before trauma occurs.
“We will be able to identify and help the more vulnerable people,” Mayo said.
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