Archive | June, 2006

Book Review: Neuromarketing – Selling to the Old Brain for Instant Success

30. June 2006

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We’ve had this site up for too long without reviewing the one English-language book with Neuromarketing in its title: Neuromarketing – Selling to the Old Brain for Instant Success by Patrick Renvoise and Christophe Morin. The book also features a provocative backup subtitle on its front cover, Is there a ‘Buy Button’ Inside [...]

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What is Neuromarketing?

27. June 2006

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We’ve seen the term “neuromarketing” term defined with confidence by a variety of sources, and they don’t all agree. Wikipedia states,
Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing which uses medical technologies such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study the brain’s responses to marketing stimuli. Researchers use the fMRI to measure changes in [...]

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Neuro-Optimized Products – Good or Evil?

23. June 2006

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Every little while, a neuroalarmist rant pops up in the blogosphere, almost always from someone who read an article about neuromarketing and concludes, “My goodness – now they’ll manipulate my brain into buying all kinds of stuff I don’t want or need!” (Latest example: Neuromarketing – a Growing Menace.) While one might argue [...]

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Search Engine Claims to Mimic Brain

22. June 2006

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Financial reporter Bambi Francisco reports that business-oriented search technology firm Baynote is trying to mimic the human brain to improve search relevance. Francisco quotes Baynote founder Jack Jia as commenting,
…he and his team tried to mimic the brain structure. Hence, the name. The brain segments searchers into peer groups, based on what they [...]

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Hollywood Goes Neuro

21. June 2006

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Neuromarketing is coming to a cineplex near you. In an interview with Caltech’s Steve Quartz, The Guardian reports that movie makers are starting to use fMRI brain scans to evaluate consumer preferences and predict future recall of promotional trailers. Although Quartz provides no details of how they determine “winners”, the thrust of the [...]

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Decision Making, Risk, and Reward

16. June 2006

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In Scientists Identify Brain Region Responsible for Calculating Risk versus Reward, Scientific American reports on new research shedding more light on the neuroscience of decision making.
Nathaniel Daw and John O’Doherty of University College London and their colleagues employed slot machines and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how 14 healthy subjects decided between reaping [...]

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Book Review: The Singularity is Near

15. June 2006

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Ray Kurzweil makes other futurists look like dilettantes. While they are extending linear trends a few years into the future, Kurzweil is using exponential graphs that indicate to him that truly profound changes await us in the next few decades. While other futurists are predicting the graying of developed countries and increased [...]

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Brain “Steroids” – Cognitive Enhancement Drugs

6. June 2006

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Students popping “smart” pills before exams? It’s happening with increasing frequency on both sides of the Atlantic, according to Students turn to smart drugs for exam help in The Scotsman. Students are increasingly using nootropic drugs, which include Ritalin, often prescribed for ADHD, and Donepezil, an Alzheimer’s aid.
A number of clinical studies have [...]

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