Conference Report

Citation

Andrew, A.M. (2011), "Conference Report", Kybernetes, Vol. 40 No. 5/6. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2011.06740eaa.004

Conference Report

Article Type: News, conferences and technical reports From: Kybernetes, Volume 40, Issue 5/6

Brains Behind Business

A lecture in the public lecture series of the University of Reading, in early February, had the intriguing title of: “The brains behind business: what neuroscience can tell us about business failure and success”. The presentation was shared between two speakers, one of them Professor Doug Saddy, specialising in Clinical Language Sciences and the other Dr Kevin Money of the John Madejski Centre for Reputation of the Henley Business School, now incorporated in the university and constituting its largest single unit.

The lecture did not make the explicit connection between neurology and decision making that the advance publicity seemed to promise, but there was a lot of valuable discussion of relevant aspects of both business and neuroscience. The only concrete linking of neuroscience with business decision making was a picture of Sir John Madejski, a local highly successful entrepreneur, being slid into an NMR brain scanner. This can be viewed, along with some of the substance of the lecture, at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11730685

The “values” that guide business decisions (and those that companies like to pretend to be guiding them) were discussed, with references especially to three companies that have been in the news, namely the Royal Bank of Scotland, Toyota, and British Petroleum. The meaning to be ascribed to “values” was discussed, and the extent to which the values held at the top of an enterprise filter down to lower levels. There was also data on change of individual preferences with age and especially on an increasing tendency, with maturity, to be ready to wait for a large distant reward rather than a smaller immediate one.

On the neuroscience side, there was much discussion of the possibilities opened up by non-invasive brain imaging, with reference to a local facility used in the studies that allows NMR scanning simultaneously with EEG recording while the subject may be presented with tasks and stimuli. It was emphasised that brain action can now be studied in intact normal people, whereas previously it had to be deduced from accidents (such as the famous case of Phineas Gage who had frontal lobe damage by a crowbar) and diseases.

Ways in which brain action might be influenced externally were discussed. These include good nutrition, perhaps with “superfoods”, and also drugs and direct electrical stimulation. Some students have taken ritalin before examinations to boost their performance. Education is of course, another input, and it was mentioned that literacy affects brain function in unexpected ways, for instance in enabling the memorisation of nonsense syllables, showing that the brain has switched to a language-accepting mode. Deep brain stimulation has been done using inserted electrodes, and has been helpful for Parkinson’s Disease and for some other conditions including severe depression.

There was also mention of research on how people react to information supplied to them, and particularly to provision of some means of deciding whether a person’s reaction is appropriate, and reconfiguring the input if not. The military are interested in this for battlefield decisions. The story was told of an air accident in Switzerland, where an experienced pilot was making his approach to landing when another plane got in his way so that he had to pull away and circle round and make a fresh approach. He did it all correctly, except that the interruption had come just as he was about to lower the undercarriage, and on his second approach he omitted to do this and there was a serious crash. He had not coped with the sudden change of situation. The incident was the subject of research by the Swiss and led to revision of procedures.

The lecture was well prepared and illustrated and aroused interest and discussion from a large audience. It is interesting that the topics of neuroscience and business are being pursued in tandem, as is apparently happening quite vigorously in Reading. In his remarks to round-off the lecture the deputy vice-chancellor expressed satisfaction that potentially fruitful collaboration between distinct units of the university had been demonstrated. Units other than the two directly involved had been mentioned in passing, for instance one in the agriculture faculty in connection with a healthy diet as an aid to brain functioning. Surprisingly, there was no mention of either of the well-established departments of Psychology and Cybernetics, even though the latter has frequently “hit the headlines” under Professor Kevin Warwick. In the lecture, the reference to deep brain stimulation as a treatment for Parkinson’s Disease was made without mention of the involvement of Kevin Warwick and colleagues in exactly this area, as related in a presentation to the IEEE systems, Man and Cybernetics Conference in Reading in September 2010.

The public lecture was undoubtedly stimulating and thought provoking, even if it is easy to feel that the internal communications of the university still leave something to be desired.

Alex M. Andrew