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Already several seconds before we consciously make a decision its outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in the brain. This is shown by a study of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, in collaboration with the Charité University Hospital and the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin. The researchers from the group of Professor John-Dylan Haynes used a brain scanner to investigate what happens in the human brain just before a decision is made. “Many processes in the brain occur automatically and without involvement of our consciousness. This prevents our mind from being overloaded by simple routine tasks. But when it comes to decisions we tend to assume they are made by our conscious mind. This is questioned by our current findings.” The study by Haynes and his colleagues Chun Siong Soon, Marcel Brass and Hans-Jochen Heinze will be published in the May issue of Nature Neuroscience and will available online on Sunday April 13th at 1pm EST (Embargo date).

In the study participants could freely decide if they wanted to press a button with their left or right hand. They were free to make this decision whenever they wanted, but had to remember at which time they felt they had made up their mind. The aim of the experiment was to find out what happens in the brain in the period just before person felt the decision was made. The researchers found that it was possible to predict from brain signals which option participants would take already seven seconds before they consciously made their decision. Normally researchers look what happens when the decision is made, but not what happens several seconds before. The fact that decisions can be predicted so long before they are made is a striking finding.

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Technorati Tags: brain, unconscious

NEW YORK Can neuroscience and biometric research really help advertisers craft better ads? While marketers have debated that question for years, the costly and cumbersome nature of the research (e.g., MRI machines, electrodes attached to scalps) means they’ve relied instead on second-hand information such as surveys to help decide what does and doesn’t work.

Over the last year, however, several high-tech firms, including EmSense, NeuroFocus, and OTX Research and Innerscope, have introduced portable, less intrusive and more affordable measurement devices to track and measure both brain waves and biologic data. Not surprisingly, a growing number of marketers and agencies are taking note, experimenting with the new devices in hopes that the resulting metrics will provide insights on ads appearing on any and all platforms.

EmSense, a privately held San Francisco company that recently hired ad industry veteran Tim Arnold as evp, business development, counts Yahoo co-founder Tim Koogle and Patrick Meyer, CEO of brand marketing consultancy Now Inc., among its board members and investors.

“This is the kind of innovation we scout for,” said Meyer, a former senior manager at Coca-Cola and Gillette, who helped bring Virgin Mobile USA, Nintendo, Coke and Miller Brewing on board as clients.

Coke became a client of EmSense late last year to help it decide which two TV ads to place in the Super Bowl. (It was the first time the company used brainwave and biometric data to help select and edit its Super Bowl ads.) In the weeks leading up to the game, the client produced about a dozen new ads for possible placement. The Coke marketing team was counting on EmSense to help it make the right choices.

The EmSense device, shaped like a thin, plastic headband, reads brain waves and monitors the breathing, heart rate, blinking and skin temperatures of consumers who preview ads to measure their emotional and cognitive responses.

According to Katie Bayne, CMO of Coca-Cola North America, the device not only helped whittle down the list of spots, but also aided in editing the two ads chosen to air — “It’s Mine,” in which parade balloons vie for a bottle of Coke, and the “Jinx” ad with James Carville and former Senator Bill Frist. For example, she says, the music in “It’s Mine” was adjusted in the days leading up to the game to build to more of a crescendo than in the original version of the spot.

“It provides you with more natural and unedited responses than you get when you force people through the cognitive loop of having to annunciate how they feel,” Bayne said. “It’s a great new tool.”

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By David Lump

The UC Irvine Health Education Center wants students to know what to eat to fuel their brains, and the list does not include coffee or energy drinks. Emily Bell, the nutrition and health manager at the Health Education Center, led an hour-long PowerPoint presentation detailing the new government-supported food pyramid and which foods to consume to best fuel your mind.

Bell’s presentation of the new food pyramid, titled the MyPyramid, made up the majority of her presentation, as the new system is a cornerstone of student health.

The MyPyramid is divided into vertical slices and presents information such as serving sizes and daily allowances of each food group. The switch in displayed information from the previously preferred serving size, as decided by food manufacturers to personalize the portions of food to eat, is in recognition of the increasing amount of food consumed by the average American daily. Since serving sizes vary between foods, the MyPyramid system focuses on determining the amount of food consumed per day in terms of cups for vegetables, fruits and dairy products and ounces for grains and meats.

Western diets typically favor grains and meat over fruit, vegetables and dairy. While Bell’s presentation did not discourage grains and meat, she emphasized making smart choices about the food groups and eating them in moderation. Half of a person’s grain servings should be whole grain; enriched grains have all the vitamins of whole grains but none of the fiber.

“High-fiber foods fill you up for longer. … Foods highest in whole grains have ‘whole grain’ listed first in ingredients,” Bell said.

Meat is restricted to five-and-a-half ounces per day, and for reference, Bell compared three ounces of meat to a deck of playing cards. The MyPyramid system splits the vegetable and fruit group into two distinct groups, meaning the daily allotment is now two cups of fruits and two-and-a-quarter cups of vegetables. Bell emphasized variety in colors of fruits and vegetables because different colors have different vitamins and minerals. Finally, Bell recommended, persons over the age of nine should have three cups of milk/dairy per day.

As in the old pyramid, fats and oils should be consumed sparingly. Bell listed several common snack foods for calorie reference: a donut holds 240 calories under its glazed belt, while a 12-ounce can of soda has 150 valueless calories; taking the crown of terrible snack foods was a medium serving of French fries–460 worthless calories. To put these irredeemable foods in perspective, Bell presented a disturbing statistic: just 100 extra calories a day equals an average gain of 10 pounds over the period of a year.

The last change to the serving system is a figure climbing the steps of the pyramid. Bell stated that moderate to vigorous physical activity, or 30 to 60 minutes of exercise a day, is required for good health. For reference, Bell listed some common exercise activities and calories burned. Walking for half an hour burns 185 calories, as does dancing and biking for the same period of time, while aerobics for half an hour burns 240 calories and swimming for the same time burns a whopping 350 calories.

After the nutritional health information presentation, Bell got into the main topic of the lecture: brain fuel. Bell touched on the four aspects of ensuring optimum brain performance: Power, or eating grains and legumes, preferably complex carbohydrates that take longer to break down; construction, or eating fish and nuts for healthy fats to build new brain cells; connection, or eating fish and nuts for protein, which provide amino acids to build new neurotransmitters for better performance; and protection, or eating broccoli, strawberries and drinking orange juice for high amounts of vitamin C for micronutrients. Additionally, exercise stimulates the brain to release endorphins, which increases oxygen circulation to the brain. Intentionally missing from this list are two staples of college consumption: coffee and energy drinks.

“Caffeine is still a drug. … You can become dependent [on it]. You have to know how much you’re consuming,” Bell said.

While coffee has high caffeine content, energy drinks have been linked to patients admitted to hospital emergency rooms for heart palpitations. Energy drinks are not regulated by the FDA and have no restrictions in the American market. This is different than in other countries, in which energy drinks are heavily regulated by governments and even banned in the United Kingdom. Instead, Bell suggests lower-caffeine drinks such as tea or water. Tea still has caffeine, but unlike diuretic energy drinks, tea hydrates the body.

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