It is incredible what some scientific research can find out about our behavior and its reflection at the brain level. In this sense, research published in NeuroImage (2014) shows us how the leadership of one person over others could be predicted thanks to their EEG activity.
Ivana Konvalinka, a researcher at Aarhus University (Denmark) and a team of her collaborators, analyzed the brain activity of a group of 18 participants with the aim of studying the social interaction between them and how our behaviors are coordinated to achieve a common goal. To do this, they grouped the individuals into pairs and sat them one with their backs to the other. The task they had to do consisted of two parts.
In an interactive task, participants listened to a beat rhythm on a computer at a tempo of 120 beats per minute and then went on to listen only to the rhythm of their partner’s finger tapping. In the control condition, they did not listen to the partner but to the beat rhythm made by a computer. In both cases, what they had to do was try to follow the marked rhythm as precisely as possible , tapping with their right index finger and at the same time synchronizing it with what they heard. These tasks were carried out while collecting the brain electrical activity of both members of each pair.
The results showed that at the neurophysiological level in the interactive condition (in pairs) a marked suppression of alpha and beta rhythms was observed in the frontal and motor areas of the brain . Furthermore, it appears that not all members of the couple displayed this pattern in the same way. According to the analyzes, only one of the members showed that profile of greater suppression of frontal activity during the anticipation and execution tasks , and this corresponded to the person who had acted as a leader during the task.
According to the authors, these data suggest that leaders dedicate more processing resources to planning and control. They also suggest that it seems that the emergence of the figure of the leader occurs spontaneously in dyadic relationships and could be predicted using brain electroencephalographic activity. It would be interesting to know if this technology will be used in areas such as politics … the future will tell.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
