"But on days when more staff are required to be in, office spaces can feel noticeably busier and noisier. Despite so much focus on getting workers back into offices, there has been far less focus on the impacts of returning to open-plan workspaces. Now, more research confirms what many suspected: our brains have to work harder in open-plan spaces than in private offices."
"In a recently published study, researchers at a Spanish university fitted 26 people, aged in their mid-20s to mid-60s, with wireless electroencephalogram (EEG) headsets. EEG testing can measure how hard the brain is working by tracking electrical activity through sensors on the scalp. Participants completed simulated office tasks, such as monitoring notifications, reading and responding to emails, and memorising and recalling lists of words."
Offices have shrunk since the pandemic as many organisations adopt hybrid work, reducing needed floor space and desks. On busier in-office days open-plan areas become noisier and more crowded. EEG recordings from 26 adults performing simulated office tasks showed increased frontal lobe activity in open-plan settings compared with enclosed pods. Tasks included monitoring notifications, reading and responding to emails, and memorising lists. Frontal brain waves associated with focused concentration (gamma) and externally directed attention or anxiety (beta) increased, while waves associated with relaxed, passive attention (alpha) decreased, indicating higher cognitive effort in open-plan environments.
Read at The Independent
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