A reprint from Joseph Coates Consulting Futurist, Inc.

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Brain Science Will Change Human Resources by Joseph Coates

Human resources is primarily a set of activities within a company or organization directed at the mental functions of workersaptitudes for work, team selection, job training, health, safety, and work assignments. Other related matters are difficult workers, addicts, and poorly motivated workers. In addition, the benefits package has to do with health and mental health care, compensation, and rewards with incentives and recognition. More knowledge of the function of the brain and its basic chemical, electrical, and physiological nature has been discovered in the past dozen years than in the previous eight decades. That knowledge will lead to better means of identification of actual and potential disorders and their treatment or prevention. The 1990s were designated "The Decade of the Brain." The large budgets that flowed into research and treatment have had bountiful results of new knowledge. The new avenues of understanding in brain science and where the knowledge will be applied to human resources are the subjects of this article. scientific research from psychology, genetics, and other biological sciences established that brain function has a profoundly significant base in genes, that is, in inherited capabilities. The old nature-versus-nurture argument can be roughly quantified: Genes determine about 80 percent of brain function, whereas the environment, both intrauterine and throughout the rest of one's life, determines the rest. To use a somewhat too-simple metaphor, genes determine the size of the vessel, and the environment determines how full it becomes. Despite the oversimplification, it is a convenient way to grasp the broad picture. We use the term "brain science" because researchers from many fields are coming together to create a new pool of integrated knowledge about the brain. Now the study of the brain belongs to no particular discipline but includes behavioral science, physiology, nutrition, immunology, psychology, biochemistry, pharmacology, genetics, and neurology, all melding for the first time to create unprecedented understanding of how the brain works. The human brain is by far the most complex entity in the universe. Not only does the brain influence our body, but the body also influences the brain in intricate feedback and "feed forward." Also, one of the now well established characteristics of the brain is that it operates both globally and locally. For instance, individual sites in the brain have specific functions. The amygdala, for example, a small almond shaped organ almost in the center of the brain, comes into play when we are presented with a sudden threatening situation. It prepares us for instant fight or flight. On the other hand, the brain simultaneously acts globally, that is, in an integrated way. It moderates that fight or flight choice so it does not happen instantly every time we face danger. There is a link from the amygdala to the cerebral cortex, which is the site of the higher brain functions, the so-called executive functions of the brain. The cerebral cortex in turn interacts with the amygdala on many if not most occasions to prevent fight or flight, to deal with the situation in a different way. The combination of global and local functions is also illustrated in the way things are perceived and stored in memory. There are no little boxes in the brain that record a full detailed picture of a scene, a person, a printed page, or an event. Rather, what we perceive is broken apart in the brain, to be stored separately. The parts come together as needed, on demand, in recall or in a dream. A major challenge in brain research today is deciphering how the mechanism for storage and reassembly works.

Factors Affecting Brain Function

The brain operates on a principle of "use it or lose it." For example, every person is born with the capability to make all of the sounds (phonemes) of all of the human languages. We each, however, live in a world in which only a portion of those phonemes is used. Consequently, the brain, at approximately age 10, begins to dump millions of brain cells daily from the language center, as we no longer have the need for their excess capacity to learn more phonemes. This dumping more or less thwarts any later capability to accurately make previously unlearned sounds. Adults who learn a second language usually learn to pronounce it imperfectly because they cannot manage the alien phonemes, and the capability to learn them has been lost. Another factor that affects capability is chemical use, for good or bad. Alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, prescription drugs such as Valium and Prozac, and recreational drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and LSD affect us mentally. The introduction of drugs into the body for therapeutic purposes is becoming more and more sophisticated:

UNDERSTANDING BRAIN FUNCTIONS

Knowledge of brain functions goes back to the mid-19th century when victims of accidents, disorders, and diseases gave some solid insights to the localized functions of the brain. Animal experiments begun in the early part of the 20th century provided further insights. Beginning in the 1930s, new tools such as the electron microscope, microelectrodes to monitor individual nerve functions, the CAT (computerized axial tomography) scan, radiology, techniques for monitoring the metabolism in the brain as a surrogate measure of brain function, and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) all contributed to a finer and a more detailed understanding of the functions of the brain down to the level of individual neurons (Le., brain cells1. In addition,

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nonsense words and determine whether they rhymed. The men and the women used different areas of the brain. The men used a small area on the left side of the brain, which has long been known to be associated with speech. The women used the same area as well as a portion on the right side. The men averaged higher brain activity on the more ancient or primitive regions of the so-called limbic system, that is, the part associated with action. The women have generally more activity in the new and more complex parts of the limbic system involved with symbolic action. For example, a special part of the brain recognizes faces. Both men and women can identify happy faces, but women can tell whether someone is sad. Men, however, can tell whether a man's face is sad-but a woman's face has to be really sad for men to see it. In one study, men were correct 70 percent of the time in deciding whether women were sad, whereas women were correct 90 percent of the time. Extensive studies of children have shown that girls are better on verbal and fine-motor tasks, whereas boys are more proficient in spatio-visual tasks.

To treat brain disorders with fewer and fewer side effects, To fit a specific person's problem and individual biochemistry with individualized drugs, and To improve or enhance rather than to merely correct.

The line between correction and enhancement is often fuzzy and is likely to continue to shift. Enhancements include treatment for those people who need, or feel they need: A more positive outlook on the world, Suppression of excessive and gratuitous worries, fears, and phobias, Improved memory, or Personality modifications, for example, to be less shy or reclusive.

Genetic Connections The genetics of underlying factors in diseases and disorders will increasingly make it clear that inheritance leads to or facilitates most specific diseases and disorders. An interesting recent example is kleptomania, which has traditionally been thought of as a moral defect, some failure of training or education, or the result of difficulty in one's personal background. That has been radically changed by the discovery that there is a site in the brain that causes kleptomania. That discovery radically dismisses any social, familial, economic, political, environmental, physiological, or ethical argument as to the origin of kleptomania. Research now makes kleptomania a biological condition and effectively medicalizes it (i.e., requires it be treated as a medical disorder). One of the sure consequences of unfolding genetics research coupled with better understanding of the functions of the brain will be increasing medicalization of many behaviors that were previously viewed as social pathologies. Almost surely alcoholism and even seeking, wanting, and continuing to use drugs will turn out to have a genetic base. In our society, we do not punish people for medical conditions but rather

attempt to treat them. Genetics will promote more medicalization. On the other hand, genetics research is also increasingly defining its relationship to deteriorative mental disorders. For example, some 6 percent of Alzheimer's disease cases have been established as genetic in origin. That is not to say the remainder are not, but it does indicate that in the past, several diseases often have been incorrectly clustered into a single disease or disorder. Psychotic depression and schizophrenia are likely to be differentiated into several distinct disorders with specific origins and presumably specific therapeutic and even preventive approaches through genetics research. Gene therapy is now in its most primitive or early stage, but it promises to be able to intervene to block or promote the expression of genes that control specific processes and disorders or to introduce a corrective gene into the body and so be able to fundamentally improve the state of mentally (or physically) troubled people. Developments related to gene therapy under research today will lead in the next 25 years to effective treatments of many mental conditions, if not all common mental disorders.

Information Processing
As is commonly known, the nervous system runs through the entire human body. The brain gets signals from the senses-sight, hearing, taste, vision, and proprioception and sends out responses and orders to the body, either for involuntary activities such as the operation of the gut or for voluntary ones such as moving an arm and a hand reaching out to catch a ball. The brain is not locked within our skull, but extends throughout the body. Looking at the brain primarily as an information-processing system is a sound approach to research, but one does not want to go too far with the concept. Playing with that notion, however, one sees intelligence as the means by which information is usefully managed. Furthermore, there is no doubt that intelligence is fundamentally genetically based and yet strongly influenced by environment.

Gender Differences Gender differences will be an important factor in HR management. The cognitive differences between men and women are small. The other differences may be quite important. Although men's brains are 10 percent larger than women's, women have about 11 percent more neurons. Those additional neurons are packed into the six outer shells of the brain in the region used to understand language and to recognize melodies, tones, and speech. It is a generally known fact that the brain has two hemispheres. Men's brains are more asymmetric, that is, lateralized. Most people have heard of lateralization in one form-the right side of the brain tends to control the left side of the body, and vice versa. In a study using MRIs to monitor brain activity, men and women were asked to read

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In his book Longevity Strategy, Richard Restak cites seven effects of aging: 1. There is a slight drop-off in gathering and using new information, perhaps counterable by making learning sessions shorter. 2. Knowledge grows as we live longer. 3. Motor learning is accomplished as readily by older people as by younger individuals. 4. Language skills such as syntax, comprehension, and grammar are not affected, but memory for proper names decreases. 5. Aging may bring a loss of depth perception and reduced ability to locate objects in space and identify geometric shapes. 6. Problem-solving skills improve with age. 7. The aging brain has more difficulty concentrating and focusing, requiring shorter work periods. Nevertheless, according to Restak, aging does take its toll: 10 percent of those over the age of 65 and 20 percent of those over 80 have significant dementia. The brain also suffers from the deterioration of its supporting structures. Age-related brain diseases such as stroke are caused by aging of the brain's blood vessels.

Information Storage Memory is associated with intelligence. As mentioned earlier, one of the great continuing research opportunities in brain science is understanding how things are recognized and how the information is stored and then later reassembled. Odd as it may seem, having an imperfect memory is a biological necessity. Those rare people who have photographic memories live miserable lives. They are overwhelmed by endless details that remain unforgotten. They find it difficult to deal with abstract concepts. Metaphors and poetry are lost on them. They have little sense of the future. It is highly speculative whether we will have external memory aids, primarily electronic, that will be directly linked into the brain. We already have working tools to directly enter into the brain and influence its function, but that is a far cry from a memory bank that can extend and expand the human memory. No artificial, that is, no nonhuman system, comes even close to operating the way human memory is currently understood to operate. Consequently, it is extremely unlikely that anything will be developed in the proximate future that will be able to directly link ideas, data, concepts, or images into the brain. Decision Making Decision making is increasingly important in contemporary life. Brain science is showing that it is a subtle affair. The prefrontal regions, which have the highest brain function, underlie the front part of the skull. These brain functions often operate at a subconscious level. In experiments in gambling, normal people are often unconsciously aware of improved choices of play well before they reach the conscious level. On the other hand, people with prefrontal lobe brain damage suffer severely defective decision making. They will often continue to make poor choices even when they know correct strategies. The development of better understanding of decision making as a brain function lies in the future.

Even personalities are becoming better understood in terms of the fundamental structure of the brain. The subtlety of the brain is illustrated by the case of the journalist who, after he had a stroke, switched from his political beat to doing a column on fine dining. He was a victim of a newly identified brain disorder resulting in a craving for fine foods. The cerebral artery in the right hemisphere of the brain altered eating behavior in the patient to make him preoccupied with shopping, dining rituals, and food preparation.

Effects of Stress and Aging

Stress is too often seen as a negative, but there is no question that some stress is essential to a healthy and effective life. The problem is that excessive and uncontrolled stress can make people sick. Anxiety and depression are often associated with suppression of immune functions, which in turn leaves the body open to many kinds of disorders. Continued stress can have identifiable effects on the brain, including neuron loss from the hippocampus. Psychological depression can result from prolonged stress, and that depression can be associated with changes in the hippocampus. This is almost surely a basic phenomenon in posttraumatic stress disorder. As with the rest of the body, the brain goes through life stages. We are all familiar with the rapid growth of the mental functions of the infant and the small child, and we are aware of the transition to maturity on the part of teenagers and youths. An increasing problem in society is the aging brain. The scientific consensus today is that the brain remains malleable throughout life and is open to continuous learning. Blood flow and the use of glucose, which fuels the brain, show no changes in the elderly. Testing of the elderly shows no change in the expression of the mind such as vocabulary, general information/ and comprehension. On the other hand, memory span and the rapid processing of information do decrease.

Implications for HR
Virtually every area of the HR function within the firm will be affected by recent, new, and emerging developments in brain science. Some samples of the effects follow. Troubled employees, addicts, alcoholics, kleptomaniacs, hottempered people, male or female chauvinists, and aggressively argumentative people are all likely to reflect a strongly genetically based component in their troublesome behavior. As new developments occur, adverse behavior that today is primarily treated as if it were of social origin will be more

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worker can absorb in a time interval is not different, but smaller on average. This implies a concept of shorter training periods. How short is an open question. Stretched-out courses might be more effective not only for older workers, nominally those over 50, but also for younger workers. As brain science develops, it will open up and define the values of simultaneous and sequence learning, the spoken word, the printed word, the screen, video, combined video and audio, and the role of tactile and other sensory input into training. It is obvious from the recent business scandals in the general press and the larger number reported in the business press that succession plans have often failed to put the best people in top positions. In relation to the long-term interest of the organization, new developments in brain science may lead to identifying and selecting the more subtle characteristics for the top executives and also offer new approaches to inculcating values, particularly corporate values, into people in the succession plan. The transmission of information is often the weakest link in and across large organizations, even down to the level of small units. The model of "I report, you listen" and "You report, I listen" is an extremely limited mode of communication. Brain science is opening up new strategies for communication and new understanding of what to communicate, how to communicate it, and how to fit the communication to the situation and to the emotional and mental structure of the recipients. We also know that communication is different among women than it is among men. This creates communication problems between genders. Creativity is not important to everyone in any organization and may not even be important to some classes of organizations. On the other hand, the most important developments in the economy depend heavily on the creativity of individuals and the so-called creative organizations. We know too little about what circumstance or
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extensively medicalized, seen as due either to a genetic condition or to some physical variable, a drug, intoxicating chemical, or a poison. Treating biologically based troubled behavior through medical approaches will become more important and in many regards will be more expensive. We now have no clear means that I know of for doing the economic tradeoff between the cost of correction and the cost of continuing employment of a troublesome worker. Perhaps an economic analysis along this line would highlight the advantages or disadvantages of medicalization. With regard to employee selection, there are two aspects to consider. One is probing the characteristics of the would-be employee, and the second is understanding the strategies that interviewers bring to an interview. Testing will improve to block out the capabilities and characteristics of a potential employee, but the bigger payoff may lie in training management to be more insightful in conducting interviews and observing what goes on in an interview. Improved skills and training in reading body language would be helpful. Women generally read body language better than men do, but both groups would benefit from more training to be able to identify and interpret the anxiety, nervousness, subtle responses of an interviewee, and also to carry that over into management functions dealing with individual workers and teams.

resources in understanding the mental makeup, characteristics, and the motivations of people. Knowledge of brain science can direct more effective rewards to employees and also provide new benefits to the dependents of the worker. We may move to a new period of trade-offs between compensations and other rewards and benefits. We have already moved in a not helpful way by charging more medical costs to the worker. What might lie in the future is a much more positive element in which the corporation can offer a special brain analysis or related benefits to the worker and his or her family in exchange for some shift in compensation. Why? Because of the scale at which the corporation provides benefits makes it likely that it will be able to provide specialized benefits more cheaply than can the individuals hunting them down for private payment. Teams are always troublesome because one never quite knows whether they are optimal. As the needs change and new people are introduced and other people drop out, are the proper choices being made? Brain science will surely have primary inputs into team building and job fitting that goes beyond the mere expressions of wishes, supervisor's estimates, and simple tests like Myers-Briggs and the Kirton Adaptation-Innovation Inventory.

Productivity
There is no question that the physical environment influences some people more than it does others. Conventionally preferred environments, such as offices with windows, are given out in terms of status in the hierarchy. It might be far more effective from a productivity point of view to look at the layout of the facilities as linked to individual mental characteristics and thus optimize work performance. In-service training will be influenced by the insights into different conceptual or mental styles. It may also be influenced by the relative age of the student or the trainee. As noted earlier, the block of knowledge that an older

Compensation
Benefits, rewards, and compensation, the triad of expenditures and activities of human resources, are still at a primitive stage. As more general information develops about the biological and genetic origins of disorders and disease, it is likely to make medical treatment of workers, particularly medical interventions in their families, more extensive, more effective, and more costly. On the other hand, the notion of rewards in addition to traditional compensation opens up great opportunities for human

Brain Science Will Change Human Resources from Employment Relations Today (Winter 2003)

A reprint from Joseph Coates Consulting Futurist, Inc.

Call 202-363-7440 or e-mail us at info@josephcoates.com

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A few enjoyable general references that can help in this endeavor are The Longevity Factor by David Mahoney, Richard Restak, et al. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998); The Science Times Book of the Brain: The Best Science Reporting from ... The New York Times by Nicholas Wade, Ed. (Lyons Press, 1998); and The Scientific American Book of the Brain (Lyons Press, 1999).

organizational conditions are necessary to unleash and promote creativity, and how one optimizes creativity from an organizational point of view. Brain science promises to be effective in dealing with that issue. Regrettably, too much of the information about the creative corporate environment is anecdotal. As organizations globalize, brain science can offer greater insight into who has the capability to work effectively in the new alien environments, who has the capability to understand and respond positively to cultural differences, and who can modify his or her own behavior to optimize performance in a foreign environment.

circadian rhythms on mood changes The connection between mental states and resistance to disease These capabilities will steadily unfold, affecting every aspect of the HR enterprise over the next 20 years and will provide: o Ways to reduce stress in the office, which could cut absenteeism o Employee education and training programs on, for example: - SAD (seasonal affective disorder), including means of self-diagnosis and treatment - Ways to counter jetlag using light therapy or other means o More effective training, including scheduling some employee training during several short daily sessions rather than during one all-day workshop to get maximum learning results o Benefits packages that include: Genetic testing Certain genetic therapies Counseling for employees with sleep problems Counseling employees on diet as it relates to mood, alertness, and quality of life o Work assignments and schedules that optimize individual employees' performance; for example, knowing who functions best during evenings and mornings could help determine those best suited for shift work or help schedule the performance of different tasks

A NEW WAY OF APPROACHING WORKPLACE PROBLEMS

Research in brain science is leading to new long-term solutions to workplace problems and situations that can be characterized as mentally related. Techniques that involve genetics, chemicals, tissue implants, surgery, and noninvasive analytical, electromagnetic, and acoustic devices all promise to play an increasingly important role in the management of cognitive, emotional, and personality factors and specialized activities at work, ultimately to enhance all of our capabilities. For example, these techniques will include: o Genetic therapies for many neurological and psychiatric illnesses o Diagnostic testing for the presence of genes associated with various illnesses or conditions ranging from Alzheimer's disease to dyslexia o Better treatments for sleep problems o Drugs for enhancing memory o Better understanding of: The effect of diet on mood and memory The importance of sleep and dreams to consolidate learning The effect of individual

SUMMARY
New developments in brain research provide fresh opportunities for corporate leaders who are interested in raising the bar on the performance and competitiveness of their organizations. Individual companies or several companies in consortium or through a second organization may want to explore the subject of this article in depth and with a 20-year perspective.

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