While in line at the grocery store checkout, the racks of magazines and candy conjure up images of monkeys with electrodes implanted in their brains. Researchers flash color cards and observe and record brain activity. The result of that poking and prodding is the colorful display laid out in front of my captive eyes.

I now find myself craving over-processed, diabetes inducing edible substances. Worse yet, I'm beginning to care about some pop culture creation that I obviously need to know more about.

This next story gives us a glimpse at how humans are replacing lab monkeys as the subject of choice in the plot to pollute our thought process.

"This year, at the UCLA Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Marco Iacoboni and his group used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain responses in a group of subjects while they were watching the Super Bowl ads.

The main idea behind this project is that there is often a disconnect between what people say about what they like — and the real, underlying deeper motives that make us want and like some things and some people, but not others. With fMRI, it is possible to look at unfiltered brain responses, to measure how the ads shown today elicit emotions, induce empathy, and inspire liking and wanting."

Source: Article

-tdm