Dance enhances both intra- and inter-brain synchrony, according to The Synchronicity Hypothesis of Dance. This hypothesis integrates findings from anthropology, sociology, psychology, dance pedagogy, and neuroscience. Dance involves seven neurobehavioral processes: sensory, motor, cognitive, social, emotional, rhythmic, and creative. The hypothesis proposes that humans dance for intrinsic reward, which, through increased neural synchrony, improves interpersonal coordination. Evidence from evolutionary theories, developmental movement patterns, and neuroimaging supports this idea. The hypothesis suggests dance may help repattern oscillatory activity, offering clinical benefits for autism spectrum disorder and other disorders with oscillatory impairments. Consciousness may be redefined as a shared experience enhanced by dancing together.
Depersonalization and trauma symptoms are linked to heightened impulsivity, increased risk-seeking, impaired emotional states, and a history of traumatic experiences. Using the Competing Neurobehavioral Decisions System theory, the study modeled survey and task data from 557 English-speaking U.S. adults. Results show that an imbalance favoring impulsive over executive systems—marked by lower valuation of future rewards, greater risk-seeking, and worse affective states—predicts more severe depersonalization and PTSD symptoms. This is the first evidence connecting dissociation to delay discounting, the tendency to prefer immediate over delayed rewards. Interventions such as episodic future thinking or mindfulness meditation may help reduce dissociative symptoms.
Flow, a state of deep immersion linked to better performance and well-being, was studied in professional Memphis Jookin' dancers. Six dancers reported high levels of flow and greater interoceptive awareness than people trained in other mind-body practices. Two dancers wore EEG caps; one showed theta-band activity during dance across several brain regions, including the posterior cingulate and supplementary motor area. Resting-state functional connectivity increased after dance across theta, alpha, beta, and gamma bands. The findings suggest street dance elicits robust flow states with distinct patterns of brain activity and connectivity, highlighting dance as an embodied practice relevant for health.