Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, Vol. 20, Iss. 2, April, 2016, pp. 271-292 @2016 Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences Tracing Neurodynamic Information Flows during Teamwork Abstract: The goal of this study was to evaluate different neurodynamic representations for their
ability to describe the interactions of team members with each other and with the changing task.
Electroencephalography (EEG) data streams were collected from six crew members of a submarine piloting
and navigation team while they performed a required training simulation. A representation of
neurodynamic organization was first generated by creating symbols every second that showed the
EEG power levels of each crew member. The second-by-second expression of these
symbols continuously varied with the changing task, and the magnitude, duration and
frequency of these variations could be quantitated using a moving window of
Shannon entropy over the symbol stream. These changes in neurodynamic organization (i.e. entropy)
were seen in the alpha, beta and gamma EEG frequency bands. A representation of team members’ synchrony
was created by measuring the mutual information in the EEG power levels for fourteen dyad combinations.
Mutual information was present in the gamma EEG band, and elevated levels were distributed throughout the task.
These discrete periods of synchrony were poorly correlated at zero lag with either changes
in the team’s neurodynamic organization, or speech patterns. Keywords: team neurodynamics, synchrony, EEG, entropy, mutual information, teamwork |