Which number sign of the apocalpyse are we up to? Ed sends along this terrifying item about the neuromarketing of films from the Guardian.
Steven Quartz, a lab director at CalTech is pioneering the use of "neuromarketing", using brain scanning technology to do market research. "We wanted to look at how the brain processes emotions and, since movies induce emotions so powerfully, they were an effective way of doing that," says Quartz. "Out of that grew the awareness that it would be a good way of seeing how people respond to movies."Quartz has put 40 volunteers into his Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging tube scanner and projected films - including Casablanca and Good Will Hunting - on to a mirror poised above their eyes. "It's actually pretty comfortable," says Quartz. "People sometimes nod off in there."
Though he will not reveal their identities, Quartz has sold the technique to film companies. "There's a part of the brain - the orbitofrontal cortex - that underlies liking or anticipation," he says. "We can look at changes in blood flow in that region to measure how much people are anticipating a movie when they are watching a trailer or how much liking they have. Another region indicates humour. We can look at the whole brain, millimetre by millimetre."
Is it just me, or does Quartz read as though he's been subtitled?