As I had commented on the blog, I am starting a research on the application of neuroscientific knowledge and technical knowledge of marketing. So, it is likely that for a while I still keep writing about such a "Neuromarketing".

This time the subject is basically on mirror neurons (mirror neurons) and dopamine, a chemical neurotransmitter that, among other functions, is responsible for emotional modulation, motivated behavior, neuroendocrine control and regulation of sympathetic tone. These last two functions are equivalent to its anatomic results with the hypothalamus, a region in which the diencephalic neuroscientists, through animal experiments, they verified that lesions in the area can generate an extreme lack of motivation (which can lead to stroke - no food intake) . Interestingly, however, this discovery is that with more advanced techniques, it was possible to record the electrical activity of individual hypothalamic neurons, linking it to the motivational states and their behavior.

But so what? Oh, is that scientists could generate important conclusions, including the theory that the hypothalamus acts in conjunction with cortical areas of control, which take care of motivational states. Thus, for example, shaking chills are controlled by the hypothalamus, but the search for a sweater would be monitored by cortical regions, as it depends on associative learning, linking the jacket to heat generation.

Briefly: Dopamine acts in the emotional modulation, taking key roles in consumer behavior, for example, due to its anatomical equivalence with the hypothalamus, which itself is related to cortical regions, responsible for the motivational states.

However, before explaining about the idea of association and dissociation of cognitive, we must also understand about these mirror neurons. This particular group of neural cells was discovered by an Italian scientist named Giacomo Rizzolati in 1992 to verify the activity in a brain area responsible for motor activity of a monkey, when that did not perform any movement, but just watched a student eating ice cream.

Mirror neurons can then be characterized as a set of neural cells that make us both mimic movements and feelings of our fellows, so that fire not only when we perform a certain action, but when we see someone doing it (as if the monkey). Due to this function, it is known that humans "rehearse" in his own mind, not necessarily foreign to what they watch someone do. It is important to note that not all movements generate activation of these cells, it is as if only certain objects and behaviors from activating these cells, and varying according to each individual, possibly.

It is through these cells learn to smile, walk, move us through the pain, share joys and others feelings and behaviors. On a deeper level, this process suggests the existence of a biological dynamics of the possibility of understanding others, and allows the creation of a complex network based on the exchange of ideas (remember the associative learning that leads us to associate with the coat heat generation?).

Let us, then, in language more geared to the application of such knowledge in marketing. Many marketing experts know the concept of cognitive dissociation (even without much or no knowledge about dopamine), and others, despite not being aware of mirror neurons, apply the concept of cognitive association.

But how do they work?

The process of cognitive dissociation is linked to the fact that the occurrence of a difference between cognition and action. This divergence occurs primarily using examples from the market when you make a purchase and then wonders why have it done ("do not even know when I'll use it"). This fact is closely related to the dopaminergic effect, in which the individual is encouraged by the activity of this substance and ends up being taken to make a buying. However, if the purchase does not have a real utility (be it psychological, social or otherwise), once past the dopaminótico effect on the brain, the person becomes aware of the impulsiveness of their candidate and the lack of usefulness of that of somehow not wanting to have it done.

The opposite effect also occurs, called it "cognitive association" and is related to the fact that once cognition and action are divergent, it is possible to make them converge, or associate them. Much of this concept has to do with mirror neurons and their role in human behavior.

Suppose you're a boy of 15 or 16 years, phase in which we seek their own identity, and it often is trying to establish itself in the midst of a social group. Then one day you go to a store that is crowded with models from all sides (be they customers or employees), where even the mannequins seem to have their own style and you think consciously or unconsciously: "This is how I want to be." Even if you never noticed before that environment, or even considered to have no interest, these people end up changing their cognitive, leading you to buy that particular store.

Some may ask, but this can not lead to a cognitive dissociation? The answer is yes. But if this happens, we will not have a cognitive association, but only the effect of dopamine in influencing purchase decisions. In cognitive association, even after the effect dopaminótico generated by the environment or by purchase and partly influenced by the mirror neurons, the divergence will not occur between action and cognition. Most likely, when using the product, see an advertisement, or other person using it is possible that this effect is further enhanced.

Felipe Almeida
Master Program - Researcher at Universidade de Fortaleza, Brazil

www.makingmarketing.wordpress.com - In Portuguese