Neuroscience Impact Brain and Business
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Innovation Trend Report Neuroscience Impact Brain and Business NEUROSCIENCE IMPACT – BRAIN AND BUSINESS INTRODUCTION This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- Acknowledgements NoDerivatives 4.0 International. We would like to extend a special thanks to all of the companies and To view a copy of this license, visit: individuals who participated in our Report with any kind of contribution. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ The following companies agreed to be publicly named and gave us by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to: Creative precious content to be published: Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Dreem Neural Sense Emotiv Neuralya Halo Neuroscience Paradromics Mindmaze Pymetrics Neuron Guard Synetiq We would also like to thank the following individuals for helping us with precious suggestions and information: Russel Poldrack, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, CA, USA; John Dylan-Haynes, Professor at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Germany; Carlo Miniussi, Director of Center for Mind/Brain Sciences – CIMeC, University of Trento, Rovereto TN Italy; Zaira Cattaneo, Associate Professor in Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy; Nadia Bolognini, University of Milano Bicocca, Department of Psychology, & IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Laboratory of Neuropsychology; Dario Nardi, Author, speaker and expert in the fields of neuroscience and personality; Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioral Science at Warwick Business School; assumes no responsibility on the Enrico Maria Cervellati, Associate Professor of Corporate Finance external linked content, both in terms of at the Department of Management Ca’ Foscari University of Venice; availability that of immutability in time. Frida Polli, CEO and Co-Founder of the startup Pymetrics. Innovation Trend Report Neuroscience Impact Brain and Business Foreword Innovation is the engine of change and neuroscience is the subject where innovation runs exponentially. For our country and for our bank, a good and forward-looking economic system is a priority. We deeply believe in innovation as a key lever for the competitive development of the Italian productive system and so the mission of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center is exploring business models of the future to discover new assets and skills that support the long-term competitiveness of the Group and its customers as we become the driving force of the New Italian Economy, to seize new opportunities and face the challenges of tomorrow, looking at cutting-edge technologies. A commitment to the growth of our Group and the development and training of future generations is crucial for Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. In this scenario, Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center has taken up the challenge of exploring the field of scientific research by the creation of laboratories and competence centers dedicated, in cooperation with international excellence researchers in their own field to generate the know-how and develop new assets and new businesses. “Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center Lab” wants to create a new cooperative working model between industry and research to guarantee the competitiveness of the group and for its customers not yet covered by big players or startups due to new market trend evolution and cutting-edge, exponential technologies. V NEUROSCIENCE IMPACT – BRAIN AND BUSINESS FOREWORD Foreword With deep passion, we study the neuroscience in Lucca, in our “Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center Lab Neuroscience” in cooperation with IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca to generate the know-how in cooperation with national and international talents and develop new assets and new businesses, saving intellectual property of our studies and enhance research and Academy. Our goal is to create an ecosystem in which scientists can work on real data and use cases to produce knowledge and intellectual property for the business. For us, innovation means progressing towards more prosperity, resiliency, better health, and social wellbeing. Innovation for good is our vision. This book, that considers the complex mechanism of the human brain, wants to reaffirm the role of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center as a strategic actor in the innovation ecosystem to support the progress and the evolution of future generations, towards responsible development models that reconnect business and society. Maurizio Montagnese VI NEUROSCIENCE IMPACT – BRAIN AND BUSINESS FOREWORD Introduction In the ancient days, knowledge was seen as a whole. There were no compartments, no disciplinary boundaries. Philosophers would think and talk spanning the whole range of natural phenomena. The development of more and more sophisticated techniques has led to an ever deeper specialization. However, as scientists, we do know that what must be avoided is the fragmentation of scientific speculation, the acritical devotion to a technique or a methodology. In fact, science grows from cross-contamination, from the interaction of individuals who come from very diverse fields and backgrounds. This is the model that we adopt at the IMT School. Since its institution in 2005, the School has distinguished itself thanks to its interdisciplinary nature, characterized by the complementarity and discourse between methodologies drawn from economics, engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, physics, archeology, art history and the analysis and management of cultural heritage. IMT researchers carry out cutting- edge research with the aim of generating and applying knowledge to solve problems of an economic, industrial, societal and cultural nature. To this aim research at IMT is also carried out in close collaboration with the local territory through several initiatives and projects in a variety of areas, including tissue industry, healthcare industry, marine industry, Information and Communications Technology for smart cities and many others. In this context of successful integration among distinct disciplines, the research field of cognitive and social neuroscience represents a very recent, but inevitable addition. Indeed, scientific advancements of the last decades made clear that any human behavior, from simple daily activities VII NEUROSCIENCE IMPACT – BRAIN AND BUSINESS INTRODUCTION Introduction to the creation of a piece of art, to a decision made to achieve a particular economic advantage, could be truly understood only by cracking the complex code hidden in the structure and function of the human brain. This change of perspective is particularly evident in the social and economic fields. Indeed, it became clear, for instance, that companies and individuals that analyze the behavior of consumers and their needs, exploring the best solutions to make their customers happy, will never be able to fully reach their objectives without taking into account the complexity and multifaceted nature of the human mind. However, it is only in the most recent years that we have finally come to obtain the ‘tools’ needed to understand the roots of human behavior and the basis of differences that naturally exist among individuals. Indeed, the introduction and the advancements of so-called neuroimaging methodologies have allowed an unprecedented definition of the marvelous morphological and functional architecture of the human brain. Today researchers are able to visualize the finer details of the encephalic structure, measure the thickness and the neuronal density in the different areas of the cerebral cortex, and identify the bundles of fibers that, like many thin electric cables, connect the various areas of the human brain. In addition, by using functional neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or high-density electroencephalography (hd-EEG), they can even observe ‘the brain in action’, that is, what happens in our brain when we do any of our daily activities: to perceive a picture or a painting, to make a decision, or to inhibit an automatic impulse. Thanks to these novel tools, we are finally becoming able to understand the processes that guide our decisions, as well as those that determine our moral VIII NEUROSCIENCE IMPACT – BRAIN AND BUSINESS INTRODUCTION Introduction judgment, our respect for ethical norms or our ability to control (or not to control) automatic impulses. We have realized, for instance, that the behavior of economic agents is the result of instinct and emotion on the one hand and of reason on the other. The former, which have remained almost unchanged in millions of years of evolution, makes us similar to other animals on Earth. The second, which represent the result of the unique development of the cerebral cortex, and especially of its anterior portion (the so-called ‘prefrontal cortex’), is unmatched in the animal world. Both of these factors and their interactions are reflected in any human voluntary or involuntary behavior. Thus, individuals who make decisions in social and/or economic contexts do not behave as ‘simple’ rational beings, and unconscious processes partially (or totally) hidden to our conscious self clearly have a much greater relevance than previously thought. Scientific advancements in the fields of neuroscience and psychology are progressively uncovering the mechanisms that drive the choices of individuals and communities, leading us toward a new science of behavior that integrates and