[As I predicted last week...] Neuroscience might never lead marketers to discover the brain’s ‘buy button’ but scientists at the University College London claimed this week to have taken the first steps towards building a “mind-reading device”.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanners, the UCL team discovered they could use brief recordings of brain activity to predict which of two objects volunteers were viewing – with 80% accuracy.
Scientists also found they could use brain scans to predict which object was present even when the objects had been masked to appear invisible to the volunteer, suggesting that unconscious processes in the brain were registering the object.
Dr Geraint Rees of the UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience said: “If our approach could be expanded upon, it might be possible to predict what someone was thinking or seeing from their brain activity alone.”
A “mind-reading device” would undoubtedly be a boon to market researchers – though it would raise serious ethical questions. For the time being, however, the sheer size and cost of buying or hiring an fMRI scanner make it an impractical and expensive MR tool.
Instead, Dr David Lewis, research and development director at neuromarketing agency Neuroco, told Research: “Studies such as these help to emphasise the vital importance of taking into account not only those perceptions an individual can consciously report but equally the multiplicity of other things going on in the brain below the level of conscious awareness.”
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