Cognitive Brain Mapping Used in the Study of Entrepreneurial Behavior – Pilot Test with the Use of Electroencephalogram - EEG during the Process of Identification of Business Opportunities

Milton Antonio Zaro^1, , Léa da Cruz Fagundes², Fábio Teutto Rocha¹ and Walter Cezar Nunes¹

¹Graduate Program of Computers in Education, UFRGS, Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil

²Graduate Program of Electrical Engineering, FEI, São Paulo, Brazil

Cite this paper:
Milton Antonio Zaro, Léa da Cruz Fagundes, Fábio Teutto Rocha and Walter Cezar Nunes. Cognitive Brain Mapping Used in the Study of Entrepreneurial Behavior – Pilot Test with the Use of Electroencephalogram - EEG during the Process of Identification of Business Opportunities. American Journal of Educational Research. 2016; 4(6):472-478. doi: 10.12691/education-4-6-5

Abstract

Most studies on entrepreneurial behavior did not show any feasible support to the thesis that entrepreneurs are different from non-entrepreneurs. However, with the use of neuroscience techniques there was a shift from the research on entrepreneurship to other possible sources of observation. Entrepreneurship education, combined with the neuroscience interdisciplinarity, allows the use of techniques like Cognitive Brain Mapping - CBM in the development of the teaching-learning process. Even though other branches of neuroscience use successfully this technique, its application in entrepreneurial behavior is a novelty in the study. This study describes the pilot test of the Cognitive Brain Mapping experimented with both established entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, seeking to identify a standard behavior among neural clusters in the moments of search and discovery of business opportunities and the propensity to risk while exploring these opportunities. In this research the CBM was done with the use of the electroencephalogram (EEGq) interconnected to a computer equipped with Enscer® softwares. The neural maps of real entrepreneurs suggested that the right and left frontal areas of the brain were activated both at the time of the search and discovery of opportunities and at the time of propensity to take the risks to explore, while non-entrepreneurs showed distinct neural organizations during the two periods. The preliminary results of this research combined to similar studies developed by other researchers, in the light of neuroscience, may direct a new methodological approach in entrepreneurship education.

Keywords:
neuroscience CBM-cognitive brain mapping search for opportunities entrepreneurship neuroentrepreneurship entrepreneurial behavior

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