How Our Brains Track Other People's Location Is Weirdly Consistent Between Brains
24 DECEMBER 2020
When navigating a space, it turns out human brains form eerily similar spatial-awareness brain waves. Scientists have discovered this after devising a method to scan our brains during free movements, as opposed to lying still in a scanner.
"Our results imply that our brains create a universal signature to put ourselves in someone else's shoes," explained neurosurgeon Nanthia Suthana from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Previous studies in rats revealed low-frequency brain waves help rodents keep track of their position when exploring a new place – by defining a place's boundaries. Similar boundary-defining waves had also been identified in humans, but only when they navigated a virtual environment while they remained still for brain scans.