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But don't call the cops just yet. Watch what it does, and then raise the alarm. Uh-oh, it's already on. Convergence, that is, of market research and neurotechnology. It's called neuromarketing, and it involves the use of brain scanners (electro-encephalogram mapping and functional magnetic-resonance imaging) to delve deep into the consumer's mind to find out what's going on at the subliminal level. To find out, in other words, what's making laughing stocks of standard market research tools such as opinion polls and focus groups. So what's going on? A lot of mystical things, you might think. Cerebral grey tissue, neurotransmitters and assorted chemicals are coming together to form a picture of the consumer brain's response to stimuli, and neuromarketers are on to it. The Coca-Cola Company, that venerable old firm that cannot resist the urge to be at the cutting edge of marketing, is using the services of Atlanta-based BrightHouse Neurostrategies Group to burrow its research tentacles deep inside the synapses of the cola-drinker's head. What has it found? Nothing on public record, so far. But neuromarketers across the spectrum are keen on using brain maps to analyse people's subconscious response to such stimuli as TV commercials. At the moment, it all sounds rather primitive. Whether this part of the brain 'lights up' (on a rush of blood) or that, really, seems too far-fetched as a reliable indicator of anything--- let alone a sense of 'self' or 'reward' upon seeing something fizzy achieve something fuzzy on a TV screen. This is not to argue that preliminary results cannot serve as pointers for validation through methods less physiologically intrusive. There could very well be enormous potential in neuromarketing, eventually, so long as neuroscientists don't deliver readings that are too simplistic to meaningfully capture what really goes on in the head. No matter how much help these tools render the medical fraternity, there is still something ridiculous about using them to understand why a Coca-Cola commercial works one way, and Pepsi another, on a subject's mind. Art is art, and its clinical dissection could soon run into the law of diminishing returns.
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