Communication can be all fired up

Getting closer to understanding what makes the very process of communication work is critical for the practice of Public Relations. We know that what we are actually doing is having an effect on the form of ‘virtual reality’ that we think is ‘reality.

We have to follow new developments in these other disciplines and no more so that in the burgeoning fields of neuroscience and psychology

We now know that part of our brain offers a ‘reward system’ and is fired up by a chemical called dopamine. When you smell, touch, hear, see, or taste a pleasurable stimulus, the dopamine neurons in your brain start firing in bursts.

So-called “burst firing” is how the brain signals reward and modulates goal-directed behaviour.

Scientists have found, for the first time, the brain area that acts as the gate, telling neurons either to go into communication mode or to stop communicating.

All the other parts of the brain that talk to the dopamine neurons can only do it when this area puts them into the communication mode.

We are now finding that these developments have huge significance for Public Relations.

What we are trying to find out is how Relationship with people and organisations can and do change the virtual realty in our minds.

The science is helping PR a lot.