Delta-band audience brain synchrony tracks engagement with live and recorded dance

Evolutionary theories claim that dance and music have evolved as collective rituals for social bonding and signaling. Yet, neuroscientific studies of these art forms typically involve people watching video or sound recordings alone in a laboratory. Across three live performances of a dance choreography, we simultaneously measured real-time dynamics between the brains of up to 23 audience members using mobile wet-electrode EEG. Interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) in the delta band (1-4 Hz) was highest when performers directly interacted with audience members (breaking the fourth wall) and varied systematically with the dancers' movements and artistically predicted and actual continuous engagement. In follow-up studies using video recordings of the performance, we show that audience brain synchrony and engagement are highest when dance is experienced live and together. Our study shows that the ancient social functions of the performing arts are preserved in engagement with contemporary dance.

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Publication Details

Journal
iScience
Published
2025-07-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.112922
Citations
10
Primary Topic
Neuroscience and Music Perception
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
14.31

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article

Delta-band audience brain synchrony tracks engagement with live and recorded dance

Melanie Wald‐Fuhrmann, Guido Orgs, Carlos Trenado, Laura Rai et al.
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iScience
Neuroscience and Music Perception
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article

Delta-band audience brain synchrony tracks engagement with live and recorded dance

Melanie Wald‐Fuhrmann, Guido Orgs, Carlos Trenado, Laura Rai, Haeeun Lee, Sonia Abad-Hernando, Daniel C. Richardson, Matthias Sperling, Jamie A. Ward, Emma Becke, Diego Vidaurre
article en
10 citations

Abstract

Evolutionary theories claim that dance and music have evolved as collective rituals for social bonding and signaling. Yet, neuroscientific studies of these art forms typically involve people watching video or sound recordings alone in a laboratory. Across three live performances of a dance choreography, we simultaneously measured real-time dynamics between the brains of up to 23 audience members using mobile wet-electrode EEG. Interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) in the delta band (1-4 Hz) was highest when performers directly interacted with audience members (breaking the fourth wall) and varied systematically with the dancers' movements and artistically predicted and actual continuous engagement. In follow-up studies using video recordings of the performance, we show that audience brain synchrony and engagement are highest when dance is experienced live and together. Our study shows that the ancient social functions of the performing arts are preserved in engagement with contemporary dance.

iScienceVol. 28(7)
Aarhus University (DK), University of Oxford (GB), Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (DE), Independent Dance (GB), National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (GB), Siobhan Davies Studios (GB), University College London (GB), Goldsmiths University of London (GB)
European Commission, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, European Research Council, H2020 European Research Council
Gender equality
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Neuroscience and Music Perception
14.31
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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