Media Mindfulness

Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things:

Neuroscientists report that they can use brain scans to predict whether someone looking at a product will actually buy it or not. Dr. Brian Knuston and his colleagues at Stanford University put images of 40 objects in front of 26 subjects undergoing brain fMRIs. By analyzing which parts of the brain light up, the scientists were able to forecast what the subject’s decision would be before he or she vocalized it. According to the scientific paper they published in the current issue of the scientific journal Neuron product preference activated the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), while excessive prices activated the insula and deactivated the mesial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) prior to the purchase decision.”