Health & Science

Creating a ‘mind meld’ by talking

When two people have a good conversation, they often feel that they’ve just “clicked.” A new study of that phenomenon has found that conversing can produce an almost eerie synchronization of brainwaves, so that speaker and listener experience a kind of “mind meld.” Using a special type of MRI device, researchers at Princeton University imaged the brain activity of a student as she told of two personal experiences—of a troublesome encounter with a police officer after an accident, and of two boys fighting over which one would take her to the prom. Researchers then scanned the brains of several subjects listening to the stories. Listeners who followed and enjoyed the stories quickly synchronized their brain waves to the speakers’. But if the listener didn’t like or understand what was being said, this effect disappeared, and brain patterns decoupled. “That feeling we all have with people, that feeling of ‘clicking’ might actually have real neural basis,” researcher Greg Stephens tells LiveScience.com. The effect goes beyond the parts of the brain used to process language; during a good conversation, people will unconsciously begin imitating each other, using similar sentence structures, speaking rates, and physical gestures and postures. In fact, listeners can get so tuned in that they can even begin to anticipate what the speaker is about to say.

The virtues of early education

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Preschool is worth the trouble. Kids who take part in early education programs are more likely to succeed as adults, according to a recent analysis by University of Chicago economists. Decades later, preschool attendees got better grades; were more likely to graduate high school and get married; and less likely to get arrested multiple times or become dependent on welfare. But what’s really surprising is why, says Wired.com. Although kids who attend preschool see an initial boost in IQ scores, that advantage dissipates by the second grade. More lasting are the non-cognitive skills and self-control the 3- and 4-year-olds develop through early socialization. “Perseverance, dependability, and consistency,” researchers say, “are the most important predictors of grades in school.” The economists have calculated that every dollar invested in preschool for at-risk children brings an $8 to $9 return to society.

Stonehenge’s wooden twin

Archaeologists working near Stonehenge, the 4,500-year-old landmark in England, have discovered the foundation of a similar monument made of wood, just a few hundred yards from the famous site. “Stonehenge is one of the most studied monuments on Earth, but this demonstrates that there is still much more to be found,” research leader Vince Gaffney tells National Geographic News. Using new imaging techniques that can map buried objects without breaking ground, scientists found a ring of holes, thought to have supported a circle of timber posts, that date to between 2,500 and 2,200 B.C., the era when Stonehenge was in use in religious ceremonies. It’s unclear whether the site represents more than just an ancient tomb or officially qualifies as a “henge”—a particular type of circular monument dating to the Neolithic and Bronze ages. Like Stonehenge, however, the structure is oriented toward the solstice sunrise, suggesting it had a similar function.

King of the rats

Think the rats waddling around in the New York City subway system are big and bad? Those monsters have nothing on a species, now extinct, whose bone fragments were recently discovered in the caves of East Timor. That rat weighed in at around 13 pounds—about the size of a small dog. (The typical black rat is just a third of a pound.) Humans have inhabited East Timor for 40,000 years, and they co-existed with the mega-rat until about 1,000 years ago, says Australian researcher Ken Aplin. The local population probably didn’t see these rats as monsters, but as dinner on four legs, and likely hunted them. The rats apparently became extinct, Aplin tells LiveScience.com, when human beings destroyed their primary habitat. “Large-scale clearing of forest for agriculture probably caused the extinction,” he says.

A new tool for the disabled

For people who are paralyzed by an injury or “locked in” to their bodies by disease, the simple power to inhale and exhale may provide a brand new way to communicate and move around, says the Los Angeles Times. Israeli researchers have created a device, which resembles the oxygen tubes worn by some hospital patients, that turns nasal pressure into electrical signals. One program lets users “sniff” to select individual letters on a computer keyboard; a second program uses sniffs to control the direction of a wheelchair. In tests, one quadriplegic patient could navigate the wheelchair as ably as a healthy person could, while a 51-year-old woman, so severely paralyzed that she can’t even blink her eyes, now can write long, emotional e-mails. So far, the device has been tested successfully by 15 severely disabled people.