Japan is like no other country in the world, fusing the ancient and the modern seamlessly. As soon as I landed in Tokyo, I noted the presence of a girl in a kimono against the scintillating neon billboards and endless flow of salarymen. Dressed in a sakura print and wooden sandals, she exhibited a timeless beauty.

The Japanese capital delivers an incredible array of experiences, from festivals at shrines to crane games at arcades. Opportunities for scientific growth are also among the offerings in Japan. This summer, I had the chanceto attend a weeklong lecture course in the greater Tokyo area called, Exploring and Emulating the Brain, organized and held by the RIKEN Brain Science Institute. In recapping my trip, I hope to make apparent the benefits of exploring your field in a new place.

My First Day

As I sat down for breakfast on the first day of the program, I was overcome with anxiety. Surrounded by strangers on the opposite side of the world, I moved to the rightmost corner of the lobby. I sipped on miso soup as I eavesdropped on awkward conversations about the brain and jetlag. Choosing not to socialize, I walked to the campus alone.

Too shy to initiate conversation, I sat in the lecture hall reading The New Yorker. Someone soon approached me holding out his ID badge. I put away my iPad and remembered that my primary goal for this course was to engage with fellow program participants. As aspiring young scientists, we build our professional networks and create job opportunities through communication and collaboration. Although it may not feel like it in the moment, an uncomfortable situation can help you grow as a person. The challenge is to get past that initial discomfort to learn something new. I was able to experience that this summer through the RIKEN BSI Summer Program.

Course Content

Alongside my peers, I was able to learn from the noted neuroscientists in attendance. Each lecture was an hour and a half, which enabled professors to share their findings in great detail. Andrew Zalesky of the University of Melbourne, Australia gave the first of fifteen lectures. He presented on neural connectomics, which is the production of comprehensive structural maps. Many researchers question the usefulness of connectomes. Its like a road map that tells you where cars can drive, but does not tell you when or where cars are actually driving, says Oliver Hobert of Columbia University. However, Zalesky elegantly argued that connectomics revealed topological properties shared across scales and species. One such property is hub nodes, which are brain regions that integrate information to enable efficient signaling.

As neuroscience details the anatomy and activity of the brain, artificial intelligence seeks to develop a non-biological path to intelligence. In a discussion panel on neuroscience and artificial intelligence, we heard from prominent researchers such as Yoshua Bengio, Shun-ichi Amari, and Andrew Zalesky. My takeaway was that artificial intelligence is not the equal of natural intelligence in most important tasks for human cognition such as vision and natural language processing. However, this is not to say that artificial intelligence wont ultimately achieve principles of natural intelligence.

Through this course, I learned how experimental and theoretical research could benefit each other. Speakers such as Terrence Sejnowski created a model based on experimental data to generate hypotheses. His computational background enabled him to bring new approaches to problems that had been accepted in sleep research. With data-driven predictions, perhaps experimental neuroscience can accelerate more rapidly and we can come closer to understanding what makes us human.

Conclusion

My greatest takeaway from this course was the incredible people I met. I had the opportunityto interact withpeople from all over the world aspiring to become scientists. Through conversations with graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, I was also able to learn about life as a scientist in Japan.

After each day of lectures, we set out to explore Tokyo in the evenings and participated in the optional Tokyo tour at the conclusion of the program. From feeling at home in the hipster district of Shimokitazawa to being overwhelmed by the pachinko parlors of Akihabara, it was incredibly rewarding to experience Tokyo in all its flavors. The RIKEN Brain Science Institute Summer Program surpassed my expectations and I highly recommend it.I encourage fellow early career researchers to immerse themselves in a new culture while pursuing science.

References

Salaryman. (2017, July 13). Retrieved July 31, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaryman

RIKEN Brain Science Institute Summer Programs Poster,http://www.brain.riken.jp/en/asset/img/summer/Poster2017.pdf

Daniel Mediati, Science is the Name but Collaboration is the Game, April 14, 2017. http://blogs.plos.org/thestudentblog/2017/04/14/science-is-the-name-but-collaboration-is-the-game/.

RIKEN Brain Science Institute,http://www.brain.riken.jp/en/.

Dr. Andrew Zalesky, People: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Melbourne. Retrieved July 31, 2017, from http://www.ee.unimelb.edu.au/people/staff.php?person_ID=24599

PLOS One Connectomicshttp://journals.plos.org/plosone/browse/connectomics

Oliver Hobert Lab Website, Columbia University,http://hobertlab.org/.

YoshuaBengio. Retrieved July 31, 2017, from http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~bengioy/yoshua_en/

Shun-ichi Amari, RIKEN Brain Science Institute,http://www.brain.riken.jp/labs/mns/amari/home-E.html.

The Sejnowski Lab,http://cnl.salk.edu/.

Photographs provided by the author.

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Neuroscience in the Land of the Rising Sun - PLoS Blogs (blog)

News Release 17-069

NeuroNex projects will develop new tools, partnerships to understand the brain

August 1, 2017

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has made 17 Next Generation Networks for Neuroscience (NeuroNex) awards to aid the research community as it pursues one of its grandest challenges: understanding the brain.

These projects will support the development of innovative, accessible and shared capabilities and resources, as well as theoretical frameworks and computational modeling to advance neuroscience research.

NSF's NeuroNex awards will bring together researchers across disciplines with new technologies and approaches, yielding novel ways to tackle the mysteries of the brain. Befitting its multidisciplinary approach to research, the NeuroNex program involves participation from multiple NSF directorates. The overall goal of this activity is to establish a coherent national infrastructure to enhance our understanding of brain function across organizational levels and a diversity of species.

"Through the development of advanced instrumentation to observe and model the brain, we're closer to our goal of building a more complete knowledge base about how neural activity produces behavior," said Jim Olds, NSF assistant director for Biological Sciences. "NeuroNex seeks to take that progress forward, by creating an ecosystem of new tools, resources, and theories. Most importantly, NeuroNex aims to ensure their broad dissemination to the neuroscience community. With these awards, NSF is building a foundation for the next generation of research into the brain."

NeuroNex is one element of Understanding the Brain, NSF's multi-year effort to enable a scientific understanding of the full complexity of the brain. Through Understanding the Brain, NSF participates in the national Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, an alliance of federal agencies and other partners seeking to enhance our understanding of the brain.

Nine of the new awards are for NeuroNex Neurotechnology Hubs, which will focus on the development, refinement and dissemination of innovative neurotechnologies. These hubs will provide:

Two of the awards are for NeuroNex Theory Teams, which will advance theoretical and computational frameworks for understanding the brain. Both of the awarded teams will focus on developing novel conceptual tools to decipher how the structure and dynamics of neurons give rise to behavior. The teams will work in concert with the Neurotechnology Hubs. Each of these eleven awards is for up to $2 million per year, for up to five years.

In addition, NSF issued six smaller NeuroNex Innovation awards, focused on developing potentially revolutionary, early-stage tools that can be integrated with other NeuroNex projects. All NeuroNex awards will also support workforce training opportunities. The complementary nature of the technologies and the mutual synergies between the technologies and the theories hold the promise of ushering in new ways of conducting neuroscience research.

The award titles, principal investigators and sponsor institutions are listed below.

NeuroNex Neurotechnology Hub awards:

NeuroNex Theory Teams awards:

NeuroNex Innovation awards:

-NSF-

Media Contacts Sarah Bates, NSF, (703) 292-7738, sabates@nsf.gov Rob Margetta, NSF, (703) 292-2663, rmargett@nsf.gov

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2017, its budget is $7.5 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 48,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.

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Useful NSF Web Sites:NSF Home Page: https://www.nsf.govNSF News: https://www.nsf.gov/news/For the News Media: https://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jspScience and Engineering Statistics: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/Awards Searches: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

Blood cell reconstructions from University of Texas at Austin researcher Kristen M. Harris.Credit and Larger Version

Cornell University's Chris Xu studies how brains produce behavior in a range of species.Credit and Larger Version

Image from the lab of Spencer Smith, who will study next-generation multiphoton neuroimaging.Credit and Larger Version

Karl Deisseroth, professor of bioengineering, in his lab at Stanford University.Credit and Larger Version

An abstract 3-D model of connected neurons, sculpted by neuroscientist Xaq Pitkow.Credit and Larger Version

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NSF issues awards to advance a national research infrastructure for ... - National Science Foundation (press release)

Four tubes contain the ingredients that produce bioluminescence: Coelenterazine appears buoyant, swirling as it interacts with luciferase. The three tubes on the right also contain different colored fluorescent proteins attached to the luciferase which, as a result, emit cyan, green or yellow light. Credit: Nathan Shaner

With up to $9.2 million in funding over five years from the National Science Foundation, Brown University will lead a national center dedicated to developing and disseminating new tools based on giving nervous system cells the ability to make and respond to light. Neuroscientists could use the tools to uniquely manipulate and observe the circuitry of the brain in a variety of model organisms.

The new "NeuroNex Technology Hub" is a collaboration of labs at Brown, Central Michigan University and the Scintillon Institute. The team's charge is to invent, improve upon and combine several unique bioengineering technologies to create new research capabilities. They will then make their advances rapidly, easily and freely available to the global scientific community.

"Through NeuroNex, we want to enable all scientists to take advantage of the best tools," said principal investigator Christopher Moore, a professor of neuroscience at Brown and associate director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science (BIBS). "There is a real problem in science of certain inequities in access. The idea is to systemically address that."

The center's other leaders are Diane Lipscombe, a Brown professor of neuroscience and BIBS director, Ute Hochgeschwender, a professor at CMU, and Scintillon researcher Nathan Shaner. Justine Allen, a graduate of Brown's doctoral program in neuroscience, will serve as the center's administrative director.

In addition to creating the new tools for the scientific community, the team intends to turn its research, which combines elements of biology, chemistry, physics and engineering, into a curriculum to engage and educate high school students.

Enlightened brains

The research has its roots in bioluminescence, the natural ability of cells to make light, as fireflies and many aquatic animals do. Moore, Lipscombe, Hochgeschwender and Shaner have already been working together to engineer bioluminescence into a variety of cells, including neurons, in a project supported in its early stages by the W. M. Keck Foundation. Their work includes making light production contingent on an influx of calcium, a typical means that neurons employ to trigger each other into action. They've also created a brighter form of bioluminescence with proteins they call LumiCaMPsins. In the new project, they will continue to work to create even brighter calcium-modulated bioluminescence in neurons.

The team combines this engineered bioluminescence with optogenetics, a decade-old technology in which distinct types of neurons can be genetically altered to turn on and off in response to light. Currently, optogenetics requires scientists to inject light into the brain of an animal via fiber optics at times and places they hope are appropriate for their work. But when bioluminescence and optogenetics are combined (the scientists call this "BL-OG"), cells can illuminate and regulate themselves when an event, such as a particular behavior, spawns an uptick in calcium. Cells programmed in this way, Moore said, can automatically respond to experimental conditions without the scientists having to manually stimulate them.

As a hypothetical example of how meaningful that could be, Moore posits a clinical application of the technology (should it become applicable in humans in the future). Imagine that a person with epilepsy is about to have a seizure, he says. As neurons with BL-OG begin to become overly activated by surging calcium levels, they could emit light that would optogenetically override that hyperactivity, automatically dampening out the seizure before it can get started.

Beyond programming cells to regulate their own activity, the team also hopes to develop ways to make cells stimulate each other with light. Such "inter-luminescence" would allow scientists to program and observe calcium-modulated dynamics in whole circuits, Moore said.

Moreover, the group also plans to create new imaging tools. Using a variety of fluorescent molecules, including some that Shaner helped to pioneer, scientists today can make cells glow in response to experimental events, Moore said, but that requires shining a stimulating light on them that can damage tissue and adds a source of noise as that incoming light scatters. Bioluminescence allows cells to glow on cue without that external stimulation, reducing the possibility of damage and reducing a source of scatter. Implanted imaging devices could also be lighter and use less power if they don't have to produce stimulating light.

Moore said one of the reasons the collaborators are excited to share what they are finding is that there is much more room for innovation with the technology than they can fill on their own.

"In our own experience as a cloud of labs working on this stuff, the list of things we want to create to make the world better is getting bigger and bigger," Moore said. "We want to enable the whole field to let them all go after it."

Enlightening minds

As they develop new tools and techniques, the team will employ several means to disseminate them, Moore said. They will produce a website with downloadable experimental protocols, genetic sequences and other documentation and will send "emissaries" to teach other research groups. They will annual hold workshops for visiting scientists to come together, generate and discuss ideas, form new collaborations and learn how to use the new technologies.

"Bring all your students and all your postdocs, and inspire them to take a few of these research questions," Allen said. "Take those home and let this grow."

Moore noted that the collaborators have a strong ethic of such openness. He serves on the board of OpenEphys, an open-source initiative to promote sharing of electrophysiology tools started by two former graduate students in his lab. Lipscombe, Hochgeschwender and Shaner have also openly shared tools and technologies with the research community before, he said.

In addition to teaching other scientists, Moore said, the collaboration will also teach students at several different levels. They plan to hold a weeklong "intensive practicum" course for undergraduate students every spring at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., to which they encourage applications from students underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. They will also create and teach courses in local Providence high schools that already work with the Brown Brain Bee. And finally, Moore said they hope to create an online version of the curriculum for other schools nationwide.

Explore further: Revolutionizing the revolutionary technology of optogenetics

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Brown to lead 'NeuroNex' center for creating bioluminescent neuroscience tools - Medical Xpress

The winners of an annual contest capture the brain at its most beautiful

Gray, white and wet, an image of the brain by itself can repulse more often than inspire. But when researchers and artists look past its outward appearance, they can reveal thrilling images of the organ that the rest of us would otherwise never see. Though many of these images resulted from lab work and research into how our nervous system functions, they easily stand alone as artclearly a neuroscience degree is not necessary to appreciate the brains intricacies.

For the seventh year in a row, the Art of Neuroscience competition out of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam asked researchers and artists to submit their paintings, renderings, magnifications and videos of animal brains. The committees winning entry and honorable mentions are presented below, along with a selection of Scientific American editors favorites.

Leslie Nemo

Leslie Nemo is Scientific American's editorial intern.

Liz Tormes

Liz Tormes is the assistant photo editor for Scientific American. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two dogs. Follow Liz on Instagram.

Neuroscience. Evolution. Health. Chemistry. Physics. Technology.

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The Art of Neuroscience - Scientific American

The topic of emotional intelligence (EQ) continues to dominate leadership conversations. Rightly so. However, in a Harvard Business Review (HBR) article that highlighted research by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis (experts on the topic), EQ is only the beginning.

Whereas EQ has an emphasis on individual psychology, there is a more relationship-based version called social intelligence. Social Intelligence, as defined by Goleman and Boyatizis, is a set of interpersonal competencies built on specific neural circuits and responses that inspire others to be effective. In other words, based on neuroscience and biology, there are certain leadership behaviors that elicit positive emotional responses in your team members.

Although there are a few, one important neurological discovery that supports the importance of social intelligence are "mirror neurons." In short, a mirror neuron fires in social situations telling our brains to mimic, or "mirror," what someone else does. That's why you might find yourself copying people's body language or drawing off of other's energy. As you can imagine, this research has extraordinary significance in organizations especially for those in a position to influence others.

To ensure that you set the right tone. Here seven traits, from the same HBR article, to gauge your social intelligence and ensure that you're leading by example:

Great leaders are cognizant and receptive of others' needs, backgrounds, and motivators. They listen objectively and make sure not to pass any preconceived judgments. They are understanding and use compassion to relate to employees and then redirect them down the right path.

Socially adept managers actively listen to others and consider their feelings. They tune into their employees' frequencies and adjust to their approach to match their communications style, therefore, maximizing their effectiveness.

Leaders with a high social quotient appreciate the importance of values and advocate for them across their team/organization. They recognize unspoken norms and adjust their styles to fit within the company's culture.

This refers to a manager's ability to motivate and persuade others. When leveraging social intelligence, a manager can uncover and appeal to their staff's self-interest. They can learn what makes them tick and find ways to incorporate their passions into their responsibilities.

In the words of Kevin Spacey, "If you're lucky enough to do well, it's your responsibility to send the elevator back down." Emotionally and socially mature leaders coach and mentor others with kindness. They realize the need and willingly take others under their wing.

Managers who are emotionally and socially mindful are able to articulate a compelling vision that builds group pride while simultaneously bringing out the best in people. They are able to explain why work matters and directly connect individual and team passions with organizational goals.

The socially intelligent understand the importance of team cooperation as a means to form bonds and increase morale. They appreciate the team's dynamics and ensure that everyone has an opportunity to provide input.

Although these seven traits don't seem measurable, Goleman and Boyatzis's research showed a large performance gap between socially intelligent and socially unintelligent leaders. If you feel like you've exhausted all other options to maximize your team's performance, then redirect the focus to yourself and develop these vital leadership attributes.

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Outstanding Leaders Exhibit More Than Just Emotional Intelligence--They Have These 7 Traits, According to ... - Inc.com

Metrion Biosciences Limited (Metrion), the specialist ion channel CRO and drug discovery company, and LifeArc, the UK medical research charity previously known as MRC Technology, newly announced an extension of their existing partnership, to support LifeArcs neuroscience drug discovery programme.

Under the terms of the agreement Metrion will provide validated ion channel and electrophysiology-based assays and safety profiling services, and LifeArc will conduct medicinal chemistry aimed at identifying novel modulators of an undisclosed CNS ion channel target. In addition, Metrion will contribute translational research expertise to evaluate the activity of LifeArc compounds in human neuronal networks.

Metrion will provide translational assay support by applying its extensive background knowledge in ion channel research, microelectrode array (MEA) technology, and access to its CiPA-compliant cardiac safety assays.

Dr Andrew Southan, Chief Operating Officer, Metrion Biosciences, said: The Metrion team has a long history of developing, validating, and providing specialist ion channel assays to optimise and select development candidate molecules. We believe combining this with translational neuroscience and microelectrode array capability, as we are in this promising project with LifeArc, may be particularly successful in CNS research.

Justin Bryans, Executive Director, Drug Discovery, LifeArc, commented: LifeArc is committed to working with cutting edge organisations such as Metrion, capitalising on our combined expertise and capabilities to advance programmes addressing human health. Our previous experience in working with the team at Metrion has been excellent, and we look forward to continuing the relationship.

This article has been republished frommaterialsprovided by Metrion Biosciences. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Metrion Biosciences and LifeArc Announce Collaboration to Support LifeArc's Neuroscience Programme - Technology Networks

Cond Nast is on a mission to prove itssponsored postsare resonating, using the backingof neuroscience.

In an attempt to demonstratethe efficacy of its branded videos on YouTube and Facebook, the media conglomerate teamed with market research firm Neuro-Insight to measurethe impact of its posts on memory encoding and emotional intensity. Using a method called steady state topography that monitors brainwave activity, Cond Nast tracked how 200 consumers interacted with its sponsored fashion, finance, beauty and auto posts.

The findings showed high levels of resonance forCond Nast posts across both platforms specifically, its videos were 60 percent more effective at memory encoding than traditional YouTube pre-roll advertising and 17 percent more engaging than general Facebook content, including user-generated posts from friends.

Josh Stinchcomb, chief experiences officer at Cond Nast, said ultimatelythe study served to affirm and legitimize the companysexisting digital efforts, butwill also help inform ways for the company to evolve across its brands.

Increasingly our social feeds and our YouTube channels are becoming major distribution points for all content we create, editorial and otherwise, he said. So much of advertising impact is subconscious. We really wanted to delve into how people were responding to advertising within the brain and get a more nuanced and holistic read.

Part of Cond Nasts higher resonance rates can be attributed to targeted advertising techniques that have made it easier to tailor content to a particular type of consumer or reader. For example, its now easier than ever to tailor fashion-centric Cond Nast videos to consumers using YouTube to seek outstyle tutorials. According to a recent study by social advertising consultancyStrike Social, fashion has the second highest ad viewership rate on YouTube across industries after education content at 13.4 percent higher viewership than the industry average, at 31.9 percent versus 27.7 percent.

Fashion has done very well at producing video content, said Jason Nesbitt, vp of media and agency operations at Strike Social. They have engaging creative and often have content that includes a popular celebrity, model of a good looking person. That always does well as far as viewership.

Enter today to join past winners like Ogilvy, Under Armour and Casper

Stephanie Fried, evp of research, analytics and business development at Cond Nast, said the studyprovides an important look at thesubconscious proclivities of its readers that helpsemphasize the impact of the companysads.

Opinions are subjective and relative to peoples individual perceptions while neuroscience is more objective and consistent across subjects,Fried said. There are some things people dont want to say but neuroscience still picks those things up. Its like a lie detector on the brain.

Nesbitt added that the benefit ofsponsored content in the digital age isbrands and publishers like Cond Nast can receiveinstantaneous analysisthat allows themto test campaigns.

Its not like traditional media where you choose a TVor radio station that might index higher due to a particular demographic, where you might not get the results till later and its harder to measure, he said. The luxury is having this data in real time and having these insights from the sheer mass data that you get.

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Conde Nast uses neuroscience to prove its sponsor posts work - Digiday

LONDON: The worlds most effective campaigns highlighted in the WARC 100 are doing many things right, but there is plenty of room for improvement, according to an industry figure.

Writing in the current issue of Admap, Heather Andrew, CEO of Neuro-Insight, outlines the extent to which previously identified key creative factors associated with long-term memory encoding are evident among campaigns in the 2017 WARC 100 where television advertising played a key role.

We found that, while almost all the winning campaigns consistently exploit some of these [six] key creative drivers, there are others that represent potential missed opportunities; and one factor to which even the strongest campaigns can be vulnerable, she reports.

The three factors that brands in the WARC 100 consistently exploited revolved around aspects of storytelling, including showcasing rather than overtly selling, making the brand intrinsic to the storyline, and having strong levels of interaction between characters all of which help drive memory encoding.

But Andrew identifies two areas that brands could better exploit: music and rhythm.

The highest levels of brain response are elicited by music that is perceived to drive the action, she notes, but many WARC 100 campaigns used a recessive soundtrack one that is present but which doesnt produce a higher response or which may even be a distraction that can have a negative effect on overall brand impact.

Effective use of breaks and pauses to direct the brain to key parts of the narrative elicit 20% higher memory response at key branding moments, but Andrew finds that many WARC 100 ads had an even rhythm with little contrast not necessarily a problem but potentially a missed opportunity.

More seriously, she warns that many run the risk of being damaged by conceptual closure when the brain pauses for a moment to process an aha! moment and for a second or so is unreceptive to new information.

Examples included taglines that sum up a story just prior to end branding, or executional details that act as a cue that the story is over before it actually is over.

The road to the WARC 100 is almost certainly littered with ads where great creative has failed to make a real-world impact as a result of conceptual closure, resulting in an ad that people love without ever being able to remember what brand was being advertised, Andrew says.

Data sourced from Admap

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What the WARC 100 can learn from neuroscience - Warc

AdNews has partnered with Neuro-Insight to bring an analysis of some of this year's winning Cannes work to understand what made them successful through a neuroscience lens. We look at Nikes What Girls Are Made Of campaign.

AdNews has partnered with Neuro-Insight to bring an analysis of some of this year's winning Cannes work to understand what it is that made them successful through a neuroscience lens.

NikeWomen is continuing to ask charged, rhetorical questions to audiences in this Russian spot. It followed NikeWomens viral Arab ad, which garnered over one million views in just a few days,and featuresa young female choir singer become empowered by the presence of female athletes. Now, the analysts and Neuro-Insight find out what the public thinks of the campaign.

Nike - What Girls Are Made Of

Nike are well known for their campaigns that question common perceptions and dare people to be the greatest version of themselves. Not to be outdone, this years What Girls Are Made Of campaign challenged female stereotypes, its powerful execution landing a Gold Lion award for film at the 2017 Cannes Lion festival.

The ad opens on a young girl performing a Russian childrens song in front of a large crowd. In her classical voice, she sings about girls being made of flowers and of rings, of gossips and marmalade. But a female athlete soon breaks through the performance, a scene after which the girl starts changing the lyrics of the tune, much to the surprise of the very conventional audience attending. The song becomes about girls strength, perseverance and freedom from other peoples opinions, with impressive performances of female athletes surrounding the young singer. The ad ends with the little girl now on the football field, looking straight at the camera, resolute to make a goal; the final message Youre made of what you do. Believe in more appears on screen, followed by the brand logo.

The narrative of this ad is powerful, but what are people truly taking out of it, and what is the emotional impact of this less cliched depiction of women? Neuro-Insight has looked at its second-by-second impact on the brain to determine the likely effectiveness of the ad.

How we did it

Neuro-Insight measured brain activity to see how 50 females and 50 males responded to the ad. The specific technology used by Neuro-Insight is founded in work originally developed for academic and neuroscience research, and has been used to analyse the effectiveness of Cannes award winners for over five years. The technology allows us to simultaneously record viewers second-by-second changes in approach (like)/withdraw (dislike), emotional intensity, engagement and memory whilst watching advertisements. The measure Neuro-Insight predominantly focusses on is Long-term Memory Encoding, based on its strong and highly researched link to actual consumer behaviour.This measure reveals, on a second-by-second basis, what the brain is storing (or encoding) into conscious and unconscious long-term memory and is plotted in the form of a time series graph. The higher the lines on the graph, the more strongly that moment in the ad is stored in memory and the more likely it is to influence consumer behaviour.

Time Series

Looking at memory encoding response allows to see how well viewers follow the key message of the ad. The times series videos that are below contrast male and female viewers response to the Nike commercial. The red trace reflects memory encoding from the left hemisphere, which is primarily responsible for the encoding of the detail in experiences, such as text, dialogue or brand messages. In contrast the right hemisphere, which is represented by the blue line, is concerned with the storing of global features, such as soundtracks, scenery and facial expressions, as well as the emotional underpinnings of a particular experience.

Long term memory encoding for Female Viewers

Long term memory encoding for Male Viewers

The above time series graphs reveal key differences in response between male and female viewers, which are indicative of what both genders are taking on board.

Amongst the female audience, the highest levels of left brain response are for scenes where there is a key development in the little girls story: when she starts changing the lyrics of the song, when the rest of the choir appears behind her, and when we see her move from the performance space to the football field. The strong left-brain response indicates that, along with these moments, the non-stereotypical portrayals of women delivered by the lyrics are also being encoded. The high levels of left brain response carry through until end branding, making it likely that women will link the ads story to the Nike brand.

Figure 1: Women focus on the young singer and the detailed message of the song

In contrast, right brain response is overall stronger than left brain response amongst male viewers. Whilst the detailed message delivered by the young singer is a key driver of response for women, men are particularly engaged with scenes featuring athletes: right brain memory response peaks for every appearance of an athlete, suggesting the overall feel of the athletic performances dominates over the underlying message. Branding is associated with falling responses and low levels of left brain memory encoding, suggesting it isnt coming across strongly.

Figure 2: Men are responding to the overall feel of the scenes featuring athletes

Looking at emotional responses (not shown here), it is evident that the ad triggers a much more positive emotion amongst women: levels of approach response are more than 3 times higher for female viewers. The difference is particularly marked during the second part of the ad, where the message changes from a stereotypical to a more empowering depiction of women: the portrayal of women as made of iron, of striving, of self-dedication, made of bravery and will that is harder than stone is associated with strong approach amongst women, indicating the ads message is very well liked. These lines are however associated with a fair bit of withdrawal amongst men: clearly, a narrative about women empowerment is most powerfully motivating for a female audience.

In summary, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the commercial is more effective with a female audience than it is with a male audience. Although male viewers engage with the sports scenes, the underlying message is neither a strong take out nor a motivating force for them, and the brand itself isnt that well encoded. However, amongst a target audience of women, the challenging stance Nike took paid off: it associated the brand with a motivating message that had strong cut through, resulting in an ad that is likely to build strong brand equity and have in-market impact.

Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au

Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day. Need a job? Visit adnewsjobs.com.au.

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Applying neuroscience to Cannes-winning work: Nike What Girls Are Made Of - AdNews

'Until We All Belong' marks the most public corporate declaration for marriage equality in Australia to date.

AdNews has partnered with Neuro-Insight to bring an analysis of some of this year's winning Cannes work to understand what it is that made them successful through a neuroscience lens.

Companies have begun taking a serious stance on same-sex marriage. While the Australian government is yet to make a decision, brands are definitely rallying the cause. Following the launch of Airbnb'sUntil We All Belong, which centres on a unfinished ring that symbolises the gap in marriage equality, the analysts and Neuro-Insight wanted to find out what the public think about the initiative.

Airbnb - Until We All Belong

Clemenger BBDO have had a stellar year at Cannes taking out the coveted Agency of the Year award in conjunction with winning a grand total of 56 Lions across a number of different categories. Amongst that silverware, Clemenger picked up a silver lion in the Media category & a bronze lion in Design category for the marriage equality themed campaign they produced for the online booking service, Airbnb. Featuring several different people, firstly describing what appears to be a broken black ring, who then broach the issue of marriage equality, the spot adds a human element to what has, at least in this country, become a highly politicised and divisive public debate. There is no denying that this is a very powerful and emotive piece of storytelling that Clemenger has created, but what measurable impact does this spot leave with the viewer? As part of our exclusive Cannes on the Brain series, now in its sixth year, we analysed the brain activity of typical viewers to understand the impact that Clemengers creativity had on the brain.

How we did it

Neuro-Insight measured brain activity to see how 50 females and 50 males respond to the ad. The specific technology used by Neuro-Insight is founded in work originally developed for academic and neuroscience research, and has been used to analyse the effectiveness of Cannes award winners for over four years. The technology allows us to simultaneously record viewers second-by-second changes in approach (like)/withdraw (dislike), emotional intensity, engagement and memory whilst watching advertisements. The measure Neuro-Insight predominantly focusses on, is based on its strong and highly researched link in influencing consumer behaviours is long-term memory encoding. This measure reveals what the brain is storing (or encoding) into conscious and unconscious long-term memory. Neuro-Insights Memory Encoding graph reveals how elements of the ad are stored in long-term memory. The higher the graph, the more strongly that moment in the ad is stored in memory and the more likely it will influence consumer behaviour

Time Series

Below are the times series graphs for both male and female viewers responses to the Airbnb commercial. The red trace reflects memory encoding from the left hemisphere, which is primarily responsible for the encoding of the detail in experiences, such as text or dialogue. In contrast, the right hemisphere which is reflected by the blue line is concerned with the storing of global features, such as soundtracks, scenery, facial expressions as well as the emotional underpinnings of a particular experience.

Long term memory encoding for Female Viewers

Long term memory encoding for Male Viewers

The creative starts by featuring several different people who attempt to describe the symbolism of a broken ring. As the narrative flows from one talent to the next, we start to see differences emerge between male and female viewers, the most notable of which occurs the average level of memory encoding itself. During this narrative sequence, the level of memory encoding in female viewers is much higher than that of male viewers and closely tracks each new talent and their personal description of what a broken ring symbolises. In contrast, the response of male viewers is reduced, sitting largely within the moderate range of brain activity and does not show any initial preference for talent or message. It is not until the narrative links the missing gap in the ring as missing acceptance that we see a sharp retrigger in memory encoding for male viewers, which results in following visuals of the couple and their message of a disconnect being very strongly encoded.

The second half of the advertisement also follows a similar trend, with female viewers continuing to elicit generally higher levels of memory encoding to each new talent and their personal stories. However, our data does reveal that both genders responded strongly to key message of the gap needing to be closed. In females, this is met with an exceptionally high memory encoding response, whereas in male viewers, although not as strongly encoded, the response did retrigger and drive an increase in memory encoding. As the narrative transitions into the personal pledges and notwithstanding the lower memory encoding response in male viewers, the levels of engagement and emotional intensity increased, indicating that the narrative was eliciting a strong emotional impact in both groups. This contrasted with the first half of the advertisement, where the levels of engagement and emotion experienced by both groups was lower.

In the lead up to final branding, we see a brief interval of Conceptual Closure that effects the Until we all belong tagline screen in both genders. Conceptual Closure occurs when the brain perceives an event boundary, such as a narrative sequence has coming to an end and takes a brief period to process and store the previous experience. In this case, it is the combination of shortened pledges and fading soundtrack which is likely to have driven this effect. Importantly, the introduction of a voiceover call to action was powerful enough to retrigger and sustain memory encoding through to final branding in both genders.

In summary, Clemengers advertisement is a powerful piece of creative storytelling, that elicits different responses in male and female viewers alike. Female viewers stay with the entire piece, strongly encoding the personal journeys and brand message. In contrast, male viewers tend to encode the most pertinent message points rather than the general narrative. Therefore, if any cut-downs were produced, it would be recommended to consider using the specific talent and messaging that spoke to missing acceptance and closing the gap as these two scenes were either very strongly encoded or triggered a strong memory encoding response in both genders. In all, the main contention of the advertisement is well encoded within the URL call to action and final branding frame, which we feel, also makes this a very effective piece of advertising.

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Applying neuroscience to Cannes-winning work: Airbnb's Until We All Belong - AdNews