The renowned Polish piano duo Marek and Wacek didn\u2019t use sheet music when playing live concerts. And yet onstage the pair appeared perfectly in sync. On adjacent pianos, they playfully picked up various musical themes, blended classical music with jazz and improvised in real time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went with the flow,\u201d said Marek Tomaszewski, who performed with Wacek Kisielewski until Wacek\u2019s death in 1986. \u201cIt was pure fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pianists seemed to read each other\u2019s minds by exchanging looks. It was, Marek said, as if they were on the same wavelength. A growing body of research suggests that might have been literally true.<\/p>\n

Dozens of recent experiments studying the brain activity of people performing and working together \u2014 duetting pianists, card players, teachers and students, jigsaw puzzlers and others \u2014 show that their brain waves can align in a phenomenon known as interpersonal neural synchronization, also known as interbrain synchrony.<\/p>\n