What is Unique in the Brains of Frontline Employees? A Structural Neuroimaging Study

Abstract

Picking up nuances of facial expression is a crucial part of frontline employee–guest interaction, yet little is known about its neurocognitive mechanism. We use a neuroimaging approach to explore the individual differences in cognitive processing style of front-of-house (FoH) employees by comparing their brain structures with those back-of-house (BoH). A voxel-based morphometry analysis of 63 senior hotel executives’ brain images reveals that the grey matter volume in the occipital and fusiform face areas of FoH employees is greater than that of BoH employees and does not depend on the length of frontline experience. These regions have been implicated in facial expression recognition that is critical to the success in frontline roles. Our findings support the social brain hypothesis. To support sophisticated social cognition, resources are diverted to brain development associated with facial expression recognition. This development trajectory follows deferred adaptation, rather than conditional adaptation, proposed in developmental evolutionary psychology.

Demystifying neurotourism: An interdisciplinary approach and research agenda

“…Nevertheless, the existing body of literature, although relatively limited, portrays neurotourism as an emerging research domain within the tourism context. While certain studies, exemplified by Pourfakhimi et al (2023) and Chark et al (2023), contend that neurotourism encompasses the application of neuroscientific methods to both tourism and hospitality, the prevailing consensus among researchers defines it primarily as the application of neuroscience within the field of tourism. This perspective is shared by scholars such as Al-Nafjan et al (2023), Ma et al (2014), andLi et al (2023).…”

“…1) Investigations pertaining to the application of neuroscience methods in the context of hotels and restaurants -As an example, Chark and McCartney (2023) conducted a study in which they employed neuroimaging to examine the cognitive processes of hotel employees. Likewise, Pozharliev et al (2021) utilized neuroimaging techniques within the realm of robot services.…”