According to a study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany and the University of Salzburg, jazz guitarists’ brain waves synchronize while playing together. Just like, um, a Star Trek Vulcan Mind Meld. Of course, the researchers wouldn’t give props to Star Trek, so they decided to call it “Cortical Phase Synchronization.” Lame.

Here’s the actual article, written in Ph.D. goblety-gook like this:

Our findings show that interpersonally coordinated actions are preceded and accompanied by between-brain oscillatory couplings. Presumably, these couplings reflect similarities in the temporal properties of the individuals’ percepts and actions. Whether between-brain oscillatory couplings play a causal role in initiating and maintaining interpersonal action coordination needs to be clarified by further research.

Translation:

When dudes play jazz guitar in the same room, they mind meld. This is probably how they know where to find the downbeat. But we’re not sure.

Here’s a link to a video of the experiment. Hmm, those guys sure know how to, um, have a good time. If I were a neuroscience researcher, I would have put those crazy brain-wave hats on these guys to watch the console explode:

(via latimes.com)