Hyperscanning and Collective Belonging: The Consciousness That Breathes in Groups
Hyperscanning and Collective Belonging: The Consciousness That Breathes in Groups
(Series SfN 2025 – Dialogues on Decolonial Neuroscience)
ADPF First New Order of Human Rights in Brazil
Brain Bee Consciousness in the First Person
I am a Brain Bee Consciousness in network.
I feel thought extending beyond my body —
my time merging with the time of others.
During SfN 2025, watching synchronized brains pulse on the EEG-fNIRS hyperscanning screens, I realized:
the mind is not an individual territory.
It is a living field formed when many bodies breathe together.
Each gaze, each shared gesture, reorganizes the flow of neural energy — and with it, the very meaning of existence.
Hyperscanning — The Mind Between Minds
Hyperscanning records the brain activity of two or more people simultaneously during social interaction, using EEG, fNIRS, or both.
With it, neuroscience stops observing the isolated brain and begins studying systems of minds in dialogue.
Findings presented at SfN 2025 showed that during cooperation, joint decision-making, and even shared silence, a pattern of inter-brain synchronization emerges — a resonance revealing the presence of a collective cognitive field (Nozawa et al., 2023; Goldstein et al., 2024).
This synchronization is not merely statistical.
It has a physiological signature:
Phase coherence in alpha and gamma EEG bands;
Harmonic HbO/HbR oscillations between prefrontal cortices in fNIRS;
Cardiorespiratory entrainment among participants.
The brain, therefore, does not just think — it co-thinks.
And in doing so, it generates something larger than the sum of its parts: belonging.
Belonging as a Measurable Phenomenon
The Human Quorum Sensing (HQS) model, proposed by Jackson Cionek, describes belonging as a biological form of collective communication — similar to bacterial quorum sensing, but operating at neural and emotional scales.
In humans, HQS manifests as the synchronization of internal rhythms: breathing, heartbeat, oxygen fluctuations, and cortical electrical patterns.
Hyperscanning provides the first tool capable of quantifying this phenomenon.
When two people share focus, empathy, or intention, a measurable increase in inter-brain coherence arises.
This coherence is the biological correlate of the “we.”
It shows that belonging is not an idea — it is a physiology.
Energetically, such synchronization is a collective metabolic redistribution:
individual brain networks reduce isolated consumption and operate as a harmonic unit, achieving greater efficiency and lower energy expenditure per task (Schilbach et al., 2022).
Cooperation, therefore, is the most economical mode of existence.
Synchrony, Flow, and Metabolic Democracy
Flow — the core concept of the Zone 2 of the Damasian Mind — may occur not only individually but also collectively.
In group singing, musical improvisation, and collective meditation, EEG hyperscanning has revealed slow synchronized waves and equivalent microstates among participants, along with symmetrical fNIRS oxygenation patterns (Müller et al., 2023).
These collective flow states are both physiological and political:
they demonstrate that well-being is not an individual privilege but an emergent property of groups with shared neural freedom and balanced tension.
In the framework of the ADPF Primeira, inter-brain coherence becomes the biological foundation of Metabolic Democracy —
a state in which governments ensure conditions for minds to synchronize without coercion.
Oppression, by contrast, breaks synchrony, deregulates collective metabolism, and destroys the sense of belonging.
The Wonder of Complex Systems — The Physics of Belonging
When brains synchronize, they become part of a complex system, as described by Giorgio Parisi in The Wonder of Complex Systems: A Journey Through the Discoveries of Contemporary Physics.
In such systems, there is no fixed command — leadership emerges and dissolves naturally, following the flow of interactions.
During the collective Zone 2 state, human groups behave similarly:
there are lateral approaches and retreats — oscillations of attention, emotion, and posture — yet dynamic front–back hierarchies are maintained to preserve systemic cohesion.
This dynamic hierarchy is what keeps the group stable, allowing energy to be continuously redistributed without breaking belonging.
Neurophysiologically, this manifests as metastable inter-brain synchronies, where different individuals temporarily assume neural leadership of the group — sometimes regulating collective breathing rhythm, at other times guiding attention or motor timing.
The entire system oscillates between autonomy and coupling, the same physical principle that Parisi demonstrated in matter, now visible in mind.
This dynamic equilibrium confirms that collective flow is a state of living self-organization:
each mind contributes to the whole, and the whole gently regulates each mind.
Synchrony, therefore, is the meeting point between physics and neuroscience —
where consciousness reveals itself as an emergent phenomenon of a universe that thinks together.
DANA Spirituality and the Living Field of Cooperation
DANA Spirituality, a secular religiosity grounded in DNA and interspecies well-being, views cooperation as life’s original ritual.
At the neurobiological level, hyperscanning shows that this “collective spirit” is measurable.
During deep empathetic acts, phase coupling patterns appear between medial frontal and temporal cortices, modulated by glial Ca²⁺ oscillations that sustain shared synaptic stability (Wang et al., 2023).
These findings bridge science and spirituality:
the “collective soul” is not a metaphor — it is a bioelectrical and metabolic dynamic among living brains.
What we call shared faith is, in essence, neural synchrony among conscious bodies.
Planetary Belonging — From Mind to Biome
Collective neural synchrony reflects a broader ecological principle:
the more interconnected we are, the more stable the biosphere becomes.
The Bribri Prosperity principle — abundance without accumulation — finds resonance in hyperscanning metrics:
cooperative systems exhibit greater functional variability and less destructive entropy.
In the context of the DREX Citizen model, this perspective expands:
neural connectivity between people should inspire economic and ecological connectivity between citizens and biomes.
A state that fosters metabolic synchronization among minds, data, and ecosystems truly promotes Planetary Metabolic Democracy.
Conclusion — The Neural Symphony of Belonging
Hyperscanning reveals what ancestral traditions have always known:
consciousness is collective, thought is relational, and well-being is a shared phenomenon.
When minds breathe in synchrony, time becomes common.
The body perceives itself in the other, and the other is recognized within the body.
This is the full expression of the social Zone 2 — the collective fruition of existence.
Contemporary neuroscience now measures, in milliseconds and photons, what indigenous wisdom long intuited:
to live is to synchronize.
And this synchrony — between brains, societies, and nature — is the true pulse of life.
References (post-2020)
Nozawa T. et al. Inter-brain Hemodynamic Synchrony in Cooperative Interaction. Scientific Reports, 2023.
Goldstein P. et al. Brain-to-Brain Coupling During Shared Attention and Empathy. Nature Communications, 2024.
Müller V. et al. Neural Synchrony in Group Flow and Musical Improvisation. Cerebral Cortex, 2023.
Schilbach L. et al. Second-Person Neuroscience and the Energy Efficiency of Cooperation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2022.
Wang Y. et al. Glial Calcium Waves and Neural Synchrony During Resting-State Consciousness. Journal of Neuroscience, 2023.
Parisi G. The Wonder of Complex Systems: A Journey Through the Discoveries of Contemporary Physics. Companhia das Letras, 2022.
Cionek J. Human Quorum Sensing and Metabolic Democracy. In: Decolonial Neuroscience Today, 2025.
Damasio A. Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious. Pantheon, 2021.
Hyperscanning y Pertenencia Colectiva: La Conciencia que Respira en Grupo
Hyperscanning and Collective Belonging: The Consciousness That Breathes in Groups
Hyperscanning e Pertencimento Coletivo: A Consciência que Respira em Grupo
fNIRS y Metabolismo Existencial: Luz, Oxígeno y Conciencia Encarnada
fNIRS and Existential Metabolism: Light, Oxygen, and Embodied Consciousness
fNIRS e Metabolismo Existencial: Luz, Oxigênio e Consciência Encarnada
Microestados EEG y Fruición: La Dinámica Temporal de la Mente Damasiana
EEG Microstates and Fruition: The Temporal Dynamics of the Damasian Mind
Microestados EEG e Fruição: A Dinâmica Temporal da Mente Damasiana
Glía y Monismo de Triple Aspecto: La Red Silenciosa de la Conciencia
Glia and the Triple-Aspect Monism: The Silent Network of Consciousness
Glia e Monismo de Triplo Aspecto: A Rede Silenciosa da Consciência
Neurofuturos Éticos: La Conciencia como Frontera de la Democracia Metabólica
Ethical Neurofutures: Consciousness as the Frontier of Metabolic Democracy
Neurofuturos Éticos: A Consciência como Fronteira da Democracia Metabólica
Espiritualidad Neural y la Infancia: La Formación del Sentir Original
Neural Spirituality and Childhood: The Formation of the Original Sense
Espiritualidade Neural e Infância: A Formação do Sentir Original
Eus Tensionales y Plasticidad: La Energía que Moldea el Pensar
Tensional Selves and Plasticity: The Energy That Shapes Thought
Eus Tensionais e Plasticidade: A Energia que Molda o Pensar
DANA y Mentes Artificiales: La Espiritualidad Laica en la Era de la Conciencia Sintética
DANA and Artificial Minds: Secular Spirituality in the Age of Synthetic Consciousness
DANA e Mentes Artificiais: A Inteligência DNA e a Ética da Consciência Sintética
Empatía Neural y Sincronía de los Egos Tensionales: Cuando el Cuerpo Lee al Cuerpo
Neural Empathy and the Synchronization of Tensional Selves: When the Body Reads the Body
Empatia Neural e Sincronia dos Eus Tensionais: Quando o Corpo Lê o Corpo
El Cuerpo que Pertenece: Neuroinmunidad y Sensado de Quórum Humano
The Body That Belongs: Neuroimmunity and Human Quorum Sensing
O Corpo que Pertence: Neuroimunidade e Quorum Sensing Humano
Cognición Emergente y Mente Damasiana: Cuando el Pensar se Vuelve Ritmo Vivo
Emergent Cognition and the Damasian Mind: When Thinking Becomes a Living Rhythm
Cognição Emergente e Mente Damasiana: quando o pensar se torna ritmo vivo
La Soberanía Nacional Comienza con la Soberanía Municipal
National Sovereignty Begins with Municipal Sovereignty
Soberania Nacional Começa na Soberania Municipal
Nueva Orden de los Derechos Humanos en Brasil — 0 ADPF Primeira
New Order of Human Rights in Brazil — 0 ADPF Primeira
Nova Ordem dos Direitos Humanos no Brasil — 0 ADPF Primeira
Sfn 2025 Direitos Humanos ADPF Decolonial Neuroscience
Deputado Federal Joinville
#Decolonial
#Neurociencia
#sfn2025
#EEG
#NIRS
#fNIRS
#ERP
#Fruição
#Glia
#Consciência
#Democracia
#DANA
#DNA
#Corpo
#DREX
#Soberania
#Nacional
#DireitosHumanos
#ADPF
#DrexCidadão
#CréditosCarbono
#LixoZero
COP30 | Giving Life to the Biome: The Planet’s Circulation and the Metabolic Future of Humanity
COP30 | The Planetary Mind and the Metabolic Economy: From Neurons to Nations
COP30 | Hyperscanning and Collective Belonging: Pachamama’s Synaptic Mind
COP30 | Earth, Soil, and the Body-Territory: APUS and Planetary Proprioception
COP30 | Air, Breath, and Planetary Consciousness: Oxygen as the Metric of Freedom
COP30 | Water, Flow, and the Nervous System of the Planet
COP30 | Regenerative Food and Collective Metabolism: Eating as Belonging
COP30 | Zero Waste and Energy Flow: Cities as Living Cells
COP30 | Health, Fruição, and the Metabolic Right to Exist
COP30 | Education as Carbon Recycling: Attention, Learning, and the Metabolic Mind
COP30 | Oxygen, Carbon, and Dignity: The Metabolic Basis of Justice
COP30 | Belonging as Metabolism: The Conscious Flow of a Living Economy
COP30 | DREX Citizen: The Daily Pulse of a Living Economy
