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When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at last year’s Macworld, I was extremely surprised the iPod’s circular-scroll gesture wasn’t incorporated into the iPhone’s interaction palette. I consider the clockwise sliding of a finger to be the first commercially branded interactive gesture. And though it may have been the right design decision, at the time it seemed like a huge brand management oversight to leave it out of their newest marquee product. A year later Apple has introduced the MacBook Air, which employs many of the iPhone’s gestures, and, with it, Apple will probably solidify its status in public consciousness as inventor of gestural interaction (or does Nintendo hold that title?).

I don’t know much about muscle memory but, as far as brand elements are concerned, I’m pretty sure Apple’s branded gestures are unprecedented in their physiological impact (the “Taco Bell runs” might come a close second). With the pinch-to-shrink gesture on it’s way to joining the circular-scroll in it’s inseparability from the Apple brand, I wonder how frequently I’ll find myself subliminally thinking Jobsian thoughts as my thumb and index finger slide across a surface that isn’t a trackpad or touchscreen. Or conversely, much in the same way athletes use mental practice (aka “visualization”) to recall muscle memory, I wonder how many muscular neurons are fired every time I see an Apple logo.