Participants in the study were asked to cooperate with a partner, while having their brain activity tracked (stock image)
Teamwork is key to any relationship.
While it has been long known that men and women have different approaches to cooperation, the reasons why have been unknown.
Now, new research from Stanford University has found that brain activity in men and women is different during cooperative tasks.
The research could indicate how cooperative behaviour may have evolved differently between males and females, and could help explain why some couple just can’t see eye to eye.
Participants in the study were asked to cooperate with a partner, while having their brain activity tracked.
The results showed that males and females had different patterns of brain activity.
Cooperation, whether it is between friends, coworkers or even governments, is seen as the foundation for human society.
However, as anyone who has worked on a group project knows, not everyone cooperates equally.
Previous studies have looked at the role of gender in levels of cooperation.
For example, it has already been shown that that women cooperate more when they’re being watched by other women, and that men tend to cooperate better in large groups.
-
Success is in your DNA: Being dealt the right genes could…
Why we can’t resist a baby: Scientists say they have evolved…
While theories have been suggested for the cause of these differences, few have actually looked at the brain.
Dr Joseph Baker, another author of the study, said: ‘A vast majority of what we know comes from very sterile, single-person studies done in an MRI machine.’
Instead of using MRI, the researchers used a technique called ‘hyperscanning’ – in which the activity of two people’s brains are simultaneously measured as they interact.
Teamwork is key to any relationship. And while it has been long known that men and women have different approaches to cooperation, the reasons why have been unknown. Now, new research from Stanford University has found that brain activity in men and women is different during cooperative tasks
The study involved 222 participants, who were each assigned a partner. Pairs consisted of two males, two females or a male and a female.
The partners sat opposite each other, each in front of a computer, but could not speak to one another.
They were asked to press a button when a circle on the computer screen changed colour. The aim of the task was to press the button simultaneously with their partner.
After each try, the pair were told who had pressed the button sooner and how much sooner. They had 40 tries to get their timing as close as possible.
MEASURING COOPERATION
The study involved 222 participants, who were each assigned a partner.
Pairs consisted of two males, two females or a male and a female.
The partners sat opposite each other, each in front of a computer, but could not speak to one another.
They were asked to press a button when a circle on the computer screen changed color. The aim of the task was to press the button simultaneously with their partner.
After each try, the pair were told who had pressed the button sooner and how much sooner.
They had 40 tries to get their timing as close as possible.
Dr Reiss said: ‘We developed this test because it was simple, and you could easily record responses. You have to start somewhere. It isn’t modeled after any particular real-world cooperative task.’
The results showed that on average, male-male pairs performed better than female-female pairs at timing their button pushes more closely.
Looking at the brain scans, it showed that the brain activity in both same-sex pairs was highly synchronized during the activity.
Dr Baker said: ‘Within same-sex pairs, increased coherence was correlated with better performance on the cooperation task. However, the location of coherence differed between male-male and female-female pairs.’
However, the mixed-gender pairs did as well as male-male pairs even though their brain scans did not show coherence.
Since the brains of males and females showed different patterns of activity during the exercise, more research may be need to understand how sex-related differences in the brain inform cooperation strategy.
However, these results could help explain how cooperation evolved in humans, and whether it was selected for differently in males and females.
Additionally, the results could help improve methods to teach cooperation skills.
Dr Baker added: ‘There are people with disorders like autism who have problems with social cognition.
‘We’re absolutely hoping to learn enough information so that we might be able to design more effective therapies for them.’