Put a neuro on it!

Put a bird on it, is a sketch from Portlandia commenting on the use of something to the point of over saturation. If The Guardian newspaper is any indicator, neuro- prefixed fields and fads have reached bird trend levels. I've posted about neuroeducation (1 and 2) and written satirical ad copy about marketing (1 and 2) before, and two article about neuromarketing and neuroeducation in The Guardian show that the tides are still raising. As with many design trends, like putting a bird on it, many neuro- trends are more flash than substance. Hastily applied neuroscience used to distract lay audiences does nothing to help further the abilities of real scientists attempting to bridge neuroscience with other fields.

Two quotes, one from each article, summarize the issues of these neuro- (mis)applications:

"Much of commercial neuromarketing EEG uses cheap kit, in poorly controlled, poorly designed experiments, that often produces junk data."

"No one should be looking to neuroscience to provide quick fixes or shortcuts to effective learning..."

I'm all for combining neuroscience with other fields, but looking to do so in a way that is appropriate, measured and well-designed. If people keep trying to use colorful brains to make a quick buck, we're going to soon run into a number of problems with shoddy science meets a scientifically tested end.