Skip to main content

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Interacting Minds and Brains
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1476944

Revisiting the earliest hyperscanning study: Power and functional connectivity in the alpha band may link brains far apart

Provisionally accepted
  • Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Ankara, Türkiye

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This brief report revisits the earliest known hyperscanning study by Duane and Behrendt (1965), which examined simultaneous EEG recordings of identical twins separated by six meters. The original study's findings suggested that eye closure in one twin elicited alpha activity in the other, despite physical separation. Leveraging contemporary signal processing techniques, we reanalyzed the digitized data to validate their findings. Spectral analysis confirmed alpha activity in the twins' EEG signals, aligning with the original observations. Multitapering along with background noise subtraction also revealed the alpha activity in the unrelated subject, which could not be observed by visual inspection alone. Coherence analysis revealed significant alpha band synchrony between a twin and an unrelated subject, differing from the initial study's conclusions. Our findings indicate that even historical data can yield new insights when revisited with contemporary data analysis tools and highlight the potential for future large-scale studies using advanced techniques to explore nonlocal brain interactions.

    Keywords: alpha activity, brain functional connectivity, coherence, Data digitization, EEG, hyperscanning

    Received: 06 Aug 2024; Accepted: 26 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Özkurt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tolga E. Özkurt, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, 06800, Ankara, Türkiye

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.