Not necessarily true:

In Buyology [1], the author claims that sexual ads cause the person seeing the ad to remember the sex object and forget whatever was being advertised.

Of course, if you're advertising porn, then a picture of some boobs is probably a good way to get people to click through. But most people aren't advertising porn.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Buyology-Truth-Lies-About-Why/dp/03855...

fMRI technology (which allows us to see what part of the brain is used during cognitive processes for those who didn’t read the article) is going to be one of the bigger items in the future and while I find the research interesting I’m not sure what it necessarily proves. It’s fascinating to see how these people’s brains are working but as a society what we’re really looking for is the cause of that activity. Are they born that way? Do their brains adapt over time? Etc...

That’s the real relevant question. Martin Lindstrom wrote a book about his experiments with fMRI technology in trying to determine buying trends (http://www.amazon.com/Buyology-Truth-Lies-About-Why/dp/03855...) and to be honest I didn’t find the conclusions he reached much more compelling than those that people had reached without an fMRI.

I guess what I’m saying is that using the fMRI is like the Neanderthal watching a tornado. He can see it but he doesn’t understand it or know how to avoid it yet so that information is of limited use. Still a step forward for him, but not by all that much.