Pakistan Sets Up First Neuroscience Lab

After the pandemic it was evident that many people in Pakistan were facing several issues such as depression, anxiety, anger, and more due to the stigma surrounding mental health in the country.

'Mental health' has become more of a trending topic due to the younger generation's self-awareness and understanding of it. The consequences of poor mental health are so grave that people are suspectable to bad decision-making, brain-dog, mental disarray and many other side-effects.

According to Express News, technology is playing a crucial role in the establishment of a laboratory which is dedicated to researching human behaviourism and patterns. The research surrounding this stems from the need to further understand the human condition and how this can be treated.

Different sectors such as politics, education, health, and commerce will be fundamentally altered by the use of advanced technology which can analyze the human brain.

One of Pakistan's top universities, the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), has set up the nation's first neuro-marketing laboratory to study the immediate effects of audio-visual messages on the subconscious through digital instruments with sensitive and advanced sensors. In the laboratory, EEG sensors will measure brain patterns, vision-tracking sensors will capture subconsious eye movements, GSR sensors will detect a message or a scene from a distance on the human skin, and the factors influencing human decision-making on faces will be explored in depth using action coding techniques.

According to Dr. Wajid Hussain Rizvi, professor at IBA and founder of the Neuro Marketing Lab, researchers around the globe are studying the effect that voice and visual messages have on our subconscious. In this regard, Pakistan has also come aboard. So far, IBA is the only institute in Pakistan that is doing something related to this sort of advanced technology and neuro-research.

We hope to see a more progressive and destigmatized attitude towards mental health in Pakistan.