Mind melding for social cues

Parents may often feel like they are not ‘on the same wavelength’ as their kids. But it turns out that, at least for babies, their brainwaves literally sync with their moms when they are learning from them about their social environment. A new study presented by the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) in San Francisco recently found that how well babies' neural activity syncs with their moms' predicts how well they learn social cues. "When we connect neurally with our children we are opening ourselves to receiving information and influence from them,” according to the researchers. Researchers found that stronger neural synchrony between mother and child predicted a higher likelihood of social learning by the child. Neural synchrony happens when brainwaves from two people follow predictable patterns with respect to each other. When parents or children fail to synchronize with each other, which may occur in certain mental health difficulties and developmental disorders, the learning and development is affected in the longer term.