Study Shows Adults and Babies Synchronize Brain Waves Through Eye Contact

3 December 2017

 - Researchers at Cambridge University have found that babies and adults synchronize brain waves through eye contact.

The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used a total of 36 infants across two experiments where their brain waves were compared with an adult.

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.

“When the adult and infant are looking at each other, they are signalling their availability and intention to communicate with each other. We found that both adult and infant brains respond to a gaze signal by becoming more in sync with their partner,” said Dr. Victoria Leong, lead author on the study via the University of Cambridge.