Abstract The association between neural oscillations and functional integration is widely recognized in the study of human cognition. Large-scale synchronization of neural activity has also been proposed as the neural basis of consciousness. Intriguingly, a growing number of studies in social cognitive neuroscience reveal that phase synchronization similarly appears across brains during meaningful social interaction. Moreover, this inter-brain synchronization has been associated with subjective reports of social connectedness, engagement, and cooperativeness, as well as experiences of social cohesion and ‘self-other merging’. These findings challenge the standard view of human consciousness as essentially first-person singular and private. We therefore revisit the recent controversy over the possibility of extended consciousness and argue that evidence of inter-brain synchronization in the fastest frequency bands overcomes the hitherto most convincing sceptical position. If this proposal is on the right track, our understanding of human consciousness would be profoundly transformed, and we propose a method to test this proposal experimentally.

中文翻译：

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是什么束缚了我们？脑间神经同步及其对人类意识理论的启示

摘要神经振荡与功能整合之间的关联在人类认知研究中被广泛认可。还提出了神经活动的大规模同步作为意识的神经基础。有趣的是，越来越多的社会认知神经科学研究表明，在有意义的社会互动过程中，大脑的相同步类似地出现。此外，这种大脑间的同步与社会联系，参与和合作的主观报告以及社会凝聚力和“自我-他人融合”的经历相关。这些发现挑战了人类意识的基本观点，即本质上是第一人称单数和私人的。因此，我们回顾了关于扩大意识的可能性的最新争议，并认为在最快的频带中脑间同步的证据克服了迄今为止最令人信服的怀疑立场。如果这个建议走上正确的道路，我们对人类意识的理解将发生深刻的转变，我们提出了一种通过实验检验该建议的方法。