14 DAY TRIAL // When having a conversation with someone, understanding what he or she is trying to say is obviously the most important factor. But some are capable of “getting” what the other is trying to say a lot faster than others can, and researchers now propose that this difference is caused by the way our brains connect to each other when we're engaged in a conversation. In the latest issue of the esteemed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), experts from the Princeton University detail how this link develops.
The work reveals that telltale signs indicating if the conversation is going well can be identified in the way the brain of the speaker mirrors the responses in the brain of the listener. It was additionally found that the correlation that develops between the two cortices extends well beyond the superficial sound processing areas of the brain, and well into those dealing with higher cognitive abilities. Some such areas include the processing of language, which may help to explain the “I really get what you're saying” part of successful conversations.
The rule that follows from these conclusions is simple and intuitive – the more people's brains connect while speaking, the more they understand what the other is saying. “That feeling that we all have when we're interacting with people, I think that what we're trying to do here is show that that feeling of clicking might actually have real neural basis,” explains for LiveScience Princeton expert Greg Stephens, who is a researcher on the new study.
The issue with this type of studies is that they are very difficult to conduct. Generally, experts only focus on one side of the conversation. “I think that scientists were worried of the complexity – understanding how one brain is working is too complex, trying to understand how two brains interact is infinitely more complex,” explains Princeton researcher Uri Hasson, who was also involved in the investigation. The team used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to conduct the study. The technique allows them to measure the blood flow to certain brain areas, which tells them just how much “coupling” occurred between test subjects.