Brains on the same wavelength: higher levels of collective intelligence – interview with Caroline Szymanski Season 4 Ep 9
Connection is a 'biological imperative'. Being a mammal means that we are extremely 'nurture-dependent'. We cannot survive without connection to another. On the one hand, each human must become self regulating to a certain degree. Self-regulation is what we do on our own to regulate our nervous system.Co-regulation is another essential aspect of our survival as mammals. Co-regulation is the mechanism we use to regulate our nervous system by connecting with other living beings. We can co-regulate with other mammals and with people. As wonderful as pets and animals are, however, an essential type of co-regulating in terms of our brain functioning is with other humans. Why? Because the health of our neural circuitry depends on complex feedback loops. The more complex and less repetitive the stimulus we get, the stronger our brains become because we need to fire up very flexible and sophisticated networks to respond. All of this means that if we really want to have our brains function at their highest level, we need to connect with other humans. Bittersweet, right? Sometimes we don't want to deal with other humans - which is where self-regulation comes in… BUT we can't stay alone. We need to balance our alone time with relationships - for the sake of our brain and nervous system! There are various ways we can co-regulate. One way is to use the physical (and online) presence of others to regulate our state. We can also call this 'bottom-up' or ‘conditional’ regulation. This can include conversations, * doing activities together, * moving together (dancing, sports), * eating together. The cool part about spending time with another person is that when we engage in 'joint attention' or 'joint movement' we actually increase the chances of forming brainwave coherence with that person. Human brainwaves can synchronize for better problem-solving and co-regulation This means that our brainwaves can synchronize its patterns with another person's, and this can make us actually feel like we are 'on the same wavelength' as them. Teams and partners who have brainwave coherence can solve problems more efficiently and effectively. Have you ever felt like you were on the same 'wavelength' as someone? In this episode, we take a look at how synchronized brainwaves help us move into higher levels of collective intelligence. Listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts Spotify I met Caroline Szymanski several years when we co-facilitated a workshop on the Neurobiology of Innovation at the Design Thinking Festival - hosted by the Hasso Platner Institute for Design Thinking. She is a social neuroscientist, consultant, coach at the HPI School of Design Thinking and former researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Caroline’s work explores how our brains function not just in isolation but in dynamic, social settings. Her research focuses on concepts such as co-creation and innovation, and how our brains align in terms of wave frequencies when we engage with others. Her insights challenge traditional views of neuroscience that often consider the brain in isolation, rather than as part of an interactive social organism. Her social brain research helps us better understand how brains functio...