Direct-to-Consumer Neurotechnology: What Is It and What Is It for?

摘要

WHAT IS DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER NEUROTECHNOLOGY?: The use of neurotechnology applications in the consumer domain for extra-clinical purposes has recently raised significant attention among researchers. Different labels have been used in the attempt to define this heterogeneous and rapidly developing technological market. Among others: 'consumer' (Ienca, Haselager and Emanuel 2018), 'consumer-directed' (Kellmeyer 2018), and 'direct-to-consumer (DTC)' neurotechnology (Kreitmair 2019; Wexler and Reiner 2019). A taxonomy is starting to emerge from this discussion. While prima facie synonymous, these labels identify non-identical intersectional subsets of neurotechnology. Consumer neurotechnology is the subset of all neurotech-nological applications used in the consumer market. This subset includes two main categories: (i) the study of consumer behavior in the neuromarketing setting; and (ii) DTC devices & services for personal use. The former category involves the use of standard neurotechnology (e.g. functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, or electroencephalography, EEG) to reveal hidden information about the consumer experience, including preference measurements (Ariely and Berns 2010). In recent years, the number of companies using neuromarketing research approaches has increased exponentially (Plassmann, Rams0y and Milosavljevic 2012).