文/蒂亞·戈斯 譯/劉紅麗 周桐 審訂/徐懷靜

腦電波或能判斷你是否具備領(lǐng)導(dǎo)天分

文/蒂亞·戈斯 譯/劉紅麗 周桐 審訂/徐懷靜

People who work together on a team go through a bit of a mind meld1meld混合。, as their brains literally begin to synchronize2synchronize（使）同步。, research shows.

[2] The scientists found that team members’ brain waves become more tightly coupled3couple配合，連接。as the individuals work together. What’s more, brain waves can reveal who will emerge as the leader of a group.

[3] The brain-scanning method used in the study could boost teamwork in organizations where group cohesion4cohesion聚合力。is mission-critical, such as on an underwater submarine or in a new squad5squad（軍隊的）班。in the army, said Chris Berka, the CEO of Advanced Brain Monitoring6一家專門制造腦電圖頭盔的公司。, who discussed the work here at the 2015 NeuroGaming Conference.

Team dynamics

[4] Most people have experienced working on a team where a few mem-bers blather7blather喋喋不休地胡說。on, hog8hog〈非正式〉多占；獨占。discussions or take things on a tangent9on a tangent跑題。. The result?Some people zone out10zone out走神。, or at the least feel incredibly frustrated, the researchers said. And in the end, the team doesn’t work very effectively.

[5] To understand a bit more about why teams go wrong—and what can be done to make them productive, Berka and her colleagues have been studying the brains of people as they worked on team projects.

[6] In one study, small groups of students were given math or science problems that required a collaborative solution, while they wore the company’s electroencephalographic(EEG) caps, which tracked the patterns of electrical activity across each person’s brain.

[7] When the teammates were working together effectively, their brain waves were tightly synchronized. For instance,they showed similar rises in activity in brain areas tied to engagement, attention or cognitive workload. Those who never arrived at a solution tended to be more out of sync11out of sync不同步。, Berka said.

A leader emerges

[8] In another study, which was presented at the 2013 Academy of Management Meeting, 146 MBA students at Esade’s business schools in Spain were asked to come up with a solution to an ethical “case study,” based on a real-life situation. In the study, Levi Strauss had discovered child labor in the company’s Bangladeshi textile factory. The plant is one of the company’s best producers,and some of the children, who were their family’s only source of support, said they would resort to prostitution if they lost their jobs. Success was based on addressing the ethical issues while not neglecting the company’s economic position.

[9] The researchers could identify halfway through a group session who would emerge as a leader, based in part on the rise in the average electrical activity in the brain’s midline theta12theta希臘字母表的第 8個字母。region, a key signature of mental engagement.

[10] “The person who was going to emerge as a leader, every time they spoke, the team engagement went up,”Berka toldLive Science. The researchers identi fi ed the emergent leader based on the ratings of the team itself and experts watching a recorded video of the interaction.

“It had nothing to do with how often people spoke,” Berka said, and in fact,when some nonleaders hogged conversation, people often zoned out, she added.

[11] Interestingly, when other people were talking, some team members showed suppressed brain activity in key regions. The thinking goes that more empathetic people have a particularly strong response in so-called suppression mirror neurons, or brain cells that quiet brain activity when a person watches someone else do or say something. Researchers have hypothesized that this suppression allows people to focus or pay more attention to what someone else is doing, and have tied stronger suppression to greater empathy.

“Those who performed the best, who had the most creative solutions, had at least one team member who was very empathetic,” Berka said.

[12] The researchers have already been using this analysis to understand why some navy teams living together on submarines for years jell13jell聯(lián)手共事；結(jié)為一體。instantly,while others take longer. But the biggest potential application is for leadership training, because EEG signals could help identify the traits or behaviors that make good leaders, Berka said. ■

某項研究顯示，同一工作團(tuán)隊的成員之間往往會產(chǎn)生心有靈犀的感覺，那是因為他們的腦電波真的在同步。

[2]科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)團(tuán)隊成員一起工作時，他們腦電波之間的聯(lián)系會更加緊密。除此之外，腦電波還能揭示誰將成為小組的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者。

[3]高級大腦監(jiān)測公司首席執(zhí)行官克里斯·貝爾卡曾在舊金山舉行的2015年神經(jīng)游戲研討會上談?wù)撨^這一話題。他說，對水下潛艇或軍隊新編班這類組織機構(gòu)來說，團(tuán)隊凝聚力是完成任務(wù)的關(guān)鍵，本次研究中用到的腦部掃描方法就可以用來加強團(tuán)隊協(xié)作。

團(tuán)隊活力

[4]研究人員表示，很多人有過這種經(jīng)歷：團(tuán)隊中總有人喜歡喋喋不休、討論無意義的話題，或者喜歡扯題外話，結(jié)果呢？有些人開始走神，至少會感覺特別灰心，最后導(dǎo)致整個團(tuán)隊的工作效率低下。

[5]為了找出問題根源和提高團(tuán)隊工作效率的辦法，貝爾卡和她的同事一直在監(jiān)測人們從事團(tuán)隊項目時大腦的反應(yīng)。

[6]一項研究中，面臨合作才能求解的數(shù)學(xué)或科學(xué)問題時，幾組受試對象都戴有腦電圖掃描儀，因此可以追蹤到每個人的腦電活動模式。

[7]貝爾卡說，受試對象高效合作時，他們的腦電波會高度同步。例如：他們大腦中與積極性、注意力或認(rèn)知量相關(guān)的區(qū)域，活性出現(xiàn)了類似的上升幅度。一直都找不到解決方案的團(tuán)隊成員，腦電波更傾向于不同步。領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者的出現(xiàn)

[8] 2013年美國管理學(xué)會年會上曾展示過另一項有關(guān)研究，研究要求西班牙艾賽德商學(xué)院的146名工商管理碩士給一個牽涉道德問題的“案例”提出解決方案，該案例取材于真實事件。研究中，利惠公司發(fā)現(xiàn)，公司在孟加拉國的紡織廠雇用童工，該工廠是利惠公司最主要的生產(chǎn)商之一。有些童工是家里唯一的經(jīng)濟(jì)支柱，他們說，如果失去這份工作，就只能去當(dāng)童妓賺錢。所以受試對象必須在解決道德問題的同時，又不忽視公司經(jīng)濟(jì)效益，才算合格。

[9]受試對象的小組會議進(jìn)行到一半時，研究人員已經(jīng)能辨別出領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者了，某種程度上是基于受試對象大腦中線θ區(qū)平均腦電活動的上升程度，因為它是判斷大腦是否在積極思考的重要標(biāo)志。

[10]貝爾克對《生命科學(xué)》說：“當(dāng)具備領(lǐng)導(dǎo)潛質(zhì)的人發(fā)言時，團(tuán)隊積極性就會被調(diào)動起來。”研究人員可基于兩點判斷誰將成為領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者：其一是團(tuán)隊成員自身的評分，其二是觀看受試對象互動視頻的專家給出的意見。

“與發(fā)言的次數(shù)沒關(guān)系。”貝爾克說。她還補充，實際上，每次不具備領(lǐng)導(dǎo)潛質(zhì)的人喋喋不休時，其他成員往往會開小差。

[11]有趣的是，在別人發(fā)言時，一些受試對象的大腦關(guān)鍵區(qū)域出現(xiàn)活性被抑制的反應(yīng)。研究認(rèn)為，尤其是那些更能理解他人感受的人，在傾聽別人發(fā)言或看別人做事時，大腦中被稱為鏡像神經(jīng)元的部分會出現(xiàn)強烈的抑制現(xiàn)象，抑或腦細(xì)胞抑制大腦活性的反應(yīng)會更加強烈。

“那些表現(xiàn)最好、最能給出創(chuàng)新性方案的團(tuán)隊，其中至少有一位善于理解他人感受的團(tuán)隊成員?！必悹柨苏f。

[12]一直以來，研究人員都在使用這一分析結(jié)果理解以下現(xiàn)象：同為常年一起生活于潛水艇的海軍，為什么有些分隊能迅速集結(jié)，而有些分隊則需要更長的時間。貝爾克還說，但由于腦電信號能夠鑒定優(yōu)秀領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者們必備的特點和行為，所以這一分析結(jié)果最具潛力的應(yīng)用領(lǐng)域還是領(lǐng)導(dǎo)能力培訓(xùn)方面。 □

Are You a Leader? Brain Waves Can Tell

ByTia Ghose

（譯者單位：北京郵電大學(xué)）