Science Magazine has blessed neuromarketing and neuroeconomics by citing them as “interesting niche areas” in neuroscience research. Emma Hitt’s article notes, “The subject areas that qualify as neuroscience are as far-reaching and as interconnected as neurons themselves. Consequently, neuroscientists often work on questions that span several distinct subfields. Many neuroscience programs are interdepartmental and take on the structure of an institute rather than a department. For example, the mission at the Neuroscience Institute of Stanford is to ‘achieve a new synthesis from molecules to mind, from analysis to application, from science to society.'”
The Science Mag article, Careers in Neuroscience: From Protons to Poetry, goes on to say,
Neuroscience has a flexibility in that it can be combined with a multitude of disciplines (Table 1), so an effort should be made to diversify skills while keeping in mind one’s career interests. For example, postdocs might benefit from getting an MBA, a computer science degree, or an economics degree to complement their conventional neuroscience training.
“Neuroscience training has many varied and productive career options for students,” Lehman says. “That’s in contrast to the traditional path of entering a medical school environment and depending on grant support. There are so many other types of career paths in which students can be happy, successful, and productive.”
The article doesn’t actually talk much about neuromarketing or neuroeconomics, but provides a table of “Emerging Multidisciplinary Fields in the Neurosciences.” Also listed are areas like neural networks, neurophilosophy, neuroethics, neuroesthetics, neurolinguistics, neuroergonomics, neuroesthetics, computational neuroscience, and psychometrics.
We looked at this topic a few months ago in Neuromarketing Careers, and offered some specific advice to those contemplating the field. Not much has changed in the intervening months, but we’re glad to see Science Magazine specifically designating neuromarketing as an up-and-coming field of cross-discipline study.
