The science, drugs and tech pushing our brains to new levels

One amazing feat of combined neuroscience, engineering and computing was achieved by Edda Bilek, Andreas Myer-Lindenberg and colleagues from the Mannheim Central Institute of Mental Health in Germany. They invented a way to study information flow between human pairs during real-time social interaction, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures changes in blood flow in the brain. They were particularly interested in studying joint attention because it arises in early development and is important for social learning.