In his Op-Ed column on October 13 in the New York Times, David Brook offered some fascinating observations after attending the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society’s conference in New York City. Brooks said that when he spoke to the attendees, he felt that they were near the beginning of something long and important.
In the article he cited studies such as the one that scanned the brains of Yankee and Red Sox fans as they watched baseball highlights, and discovered that “neither reacted much to an Orioles-Blue Jays game, but when they saw their own team doing well, brain regions called the ventral striatum and nucleus accumbens were activated.” 
According to Brooks, “this is a look at how tribal dominance struggles get processed inside.” Although my takeaway, as a lifelong Yankees fan, was “I didn’t know Red Sox fans had brains.”
On a more serious note, there are lessons to learn here. That is, over time, as we discover how we process information, what happens in the brain when people are persuaded by an argument, as we understand how we work in and across groups (tribes), as we learn how we get motivated and de-motivated, as we learn how we perceive other’s feelings and pain, and the role culture plays in all of this, we have an extraordinary opportunity to dramatically improve how we sell, market, manage and motivate.
While this seems like science fiction or something that can be applied only far off in the future, cognitive neuroscientists like Stephen Kosslyn, in his book, Clear and to The Point, are already explaining how business people can use some of these discoveries to enhance their ability to communicate complex concepts. In our view the “age of the brain” is just beginning. Do you agree?
The Skillet 