Using fMRI, the researchers found that managers’ brains were less active in a number of areas, compared to the brains of non-managers, when doing the same task. By contrast, managerial brains were more active than the others only in one small area (caudate nucleus).

The researchers’ argument hinged on the conclusion that:

While non-managers wasted brainpower on thinking through the task with several areas of their cerebral cortex, the managers (so to speak) downsized their neurological expenditure by outsourcing the work to their caudate nucleus, an area responsible for applying a simple but effective rule.

Another fMRI-based study to take with a pinch of salt. I guess these are still relatively early days in the development of neuroscience. Hopefully, technology and techniques will continue to improve and more solid research findings will follow.