For your short relaxation times.
Neuromarketing is the application of neuroimaging methods to product marketing, to more effectively “match products with people”. Companies can incorporate use of fMRI in the design process of a product, as well as in assessing the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.
LOVE, n.
LOVE, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder.
[Ambrose Bierce, 1911]
Limerence describes an involuntary cognitive and emotional state of intense romantic desire for another person—in other words, romantic love. Researchers in New York have shown, using functional MRI, that in some human individuals being “in love” with a long-term partner is similar to early-stage romantic love. But perhaps not in the way you might think.
In 1836, Frederick Tiedmann wrote that there exists
“an indisputable connection between the size of the brain and the mental energy displayed by the individual man.”
(Hamilton JA 1935. The association between brain size and maze ability in the white rat. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.)
Brain volumes can be measured accurately with MRI, and using MRI, research has shown that intelligence and brain volume are meaningfully related. The correlation is higher in adult women. Another study in elderly men showed that fluid intelligence, premorbid intelligence, and visuospatial memory are affected, but not verbal memory and verbal fluency.
It’s OK to be big-headed after all…
Apparently, in neurobiology, honeybees are a common model system for analysing underlying neural mechanisms. Furthermore, by investigating the bee brain’s anatomy, correlations between anatomy and function can be studied. MRI allows access to the brain structure without chopping the bee’s head up.
See a bee-brain at the Journal of Insect Science. The in-plane resolution of images reported is about 16μm x 16μm.
It may be common knowledge that similar pleasure centres in the brain light up when eating chocolate or having sex. But good ol’ MRI can tell us much more. Continue Reading »