Marketing brain images and shaping ways of seeing: a visual analysis of a neuroscientific website
by
Jorge Alexander Daza Cardona
and
Denielle Elliott
Brain images entice particular ways of looking that frame how brain health, human behavior, personhood, and cognition are understood. This article examines the brain images used to convey neuroscientific knowledge through digital media by examining the website of one of the world's leading tests for screening cognitive impairments. Based on Visual Discourse Analysis, this research found that the studied website prioritizes brain images to depict cognition by displaying MRI scans, drawings, and diverse futuristic and colorful digital representations. These images reinforce the idea that this cognitive test is a predominant instrument for understanding the brain and the cognitive domains. However, they also portray the brain as a simple and transparent entity while obscuring its sociomaterial dimensions. Finally, the article reflects on the rhetorical, epistemological and ontological consequences of intersecting science, marketing, and web design.