Synchrony to a beat predicts synchrony with other minds

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human Behavior

Background:

• The term 'synchrony' is broadly applied, encompassing simple beat entrainment and complex interpersonal mental correlations.
• This ambiguity raises questions about whether a single mechanism underlies diverse synchrony phenomena.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if simple synchrony (beat entrainment) can predict more complex attentional synchrony.
• To determine if a common underlying mechanism drives both simple and complex forms of synchrony.

Main Methods:

• Participants underwent eye-tracking while listening to tones and indicating volume changes, measuring beat-matched pupil dilations.
• A second study involved participants completing the beat task and then listening to a recorded storyteller, with simultaneous eye-tracking.

Main Results:

• A stable individual difference in attentional entrainment to a beat was identified, correlating with performance.
• The tendency to entrain to a beat predicted pupil synchrony with a storyteller, indicating shared attention.

Conclusions:

• Beat entrainment is a stable individual trait.
• This trait predicts attentional synchrony in more complex, interpersonal contexts, suggesting a common mechanism for synchrony.