Brain signatures of team performance

Abstract

We report results from a dual electroencephalography (EEG) study, in which two-member teams performed a simulated combat scenario. Our aim was to distinguish expert from novice teams by their brain dynamics. Our findings suggest that dimensionality increases in the joint brain dynamics of the team members is a signature of increased task demand, both objective, e.g. increased task difficulty, and subjective, e.g. lack of experience in performing the task. Furthermore in each team we identified a subspace of joint brain dynamics related to team coordination. Our approach identifies signatures specific to team coordination by introducing surrogate team data as a baseline for joint brain dynamics without team coordination. This revealed that team coordination affects the subspace itself in which the joint brain dynamics of the team members are evolving, but not its dimensionality. Our results confirm the possibility to identify signatures of team coordination from the team members' brain dynamics. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.