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By Ibrahima E. Diallo Neuromarketing image courtesy of flickr user cmcbrown  A few years ago, I read a New York Times article that really caught my attention. The article detailed the emergence of a technique that would allow marketers to “make ads that whisper to the brain.” The notion that researchers could probe my mind seemed like an exciting yet frightening proposition. As I read the article, it piqued my interest to learn more about “neuromarketing.” What is neuromarketing and how does it work? Consumer Neuroscience, also commonly referred to as Neuromarketing , is a relatively novel field, which uses neurophysiological techniques, such as brain imaging and electroencephalography, in order to gain insight on the decision-making process of the consumer. Consumer Neuroscience often utilizes not only brain imaging techniques, but also biometrics to gather data related to consumer behavior and decision-making (Ariely & Berns 2010). The data collected is used to gauge cogniti...

By Amber Green Amber Green is currently a senior in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences, double majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology and Philosophy . Her majors led her to an interest in neurophilosophy and neuroethics. She hopes to pursue a MA in Bioethics and/or Neurophilosophy and go into a career as a clinical neuroethicist after graduating in May. Having a family member pronounced dead is a very heartbreaking moment. Be it your pet, your sister, your mother, or your child, the pain you feel when the doctor reports that your loved one has passed away is overwhelming. Doctors know that there are no take-backs once they inform the family of the patient’s death, which is why there are strict procedures for a doctor to follow when declaring someone dead. However, when it comes to “brain death” and the advances of life support technology, these procedures become harder to follow and leads one to ask the question: “More importantly, if the brain is dead, are we dead?” In ...

One of the most famous examples of reminiscence includes a madeleine dipped in tea, which lead to almost 3,000 pages of recollection by the narrator in the beginning of Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time, and we have all experienced these sensory triggers to a particular memory. Remembering the past helps us to re-examine our lives, make choices, and share personal accomplishments. We often use external devices to help us remember events big and small, and with advances in technology, we often record and make plans using a variety of digital devices such as iPhones, Microsoft’s Outlook, and even smart watches. We have the capability to store a lifetime of data with these advanced technologies, and with the advent of Facebook, Twitter, “selfies”, and blogs it has become routine for many people to document their lives on a daily basis in a digital form, a practice that has been referred to as “lifelogging.” The outcome of documenting activities digitally are human digital m...

Psychotic disorders like schizophrenia affect about 5% of people and often result in life-long disability. Identifying at-risk individuals and predicting disease onset are crucial, and present a challenge to the development of preventative treatments. Understanding the biological mechanisms underlying psychosis are also extremely important in identifying risk factors and designing treatments. Because psychotic disorders are so disabling and usually irreversible, research interests in this field have shifted toward prevention and early intervention. Subtle pre-clinical deficits in psychosocial and neurocognitive functioning have been reported for many years and are now being extensively studied. Elucidating this pre-illness state, known as the “prodromal” period, is one area of research for Dr. Elaine Walker, the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Emory University. Dr. Walker spoke at the Frontiers in Neuroscience Seminar Series on Friday, January 27 th , ...