Brain scans predict shoppers' purchasing choices

NewsBot · Jan 10, 2007

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Reuters are reporting:
Brain scans predict shoppers' purchasing choices

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Scientists can now look into the brains of people making a purchase decision and predict whether or not they will buy.

When people see something they want to purchase, a portion of the brain called the nucleus accumbens "lights up" on a brain scan. If the price is too high, another region of the brain called the insula is activated and the mesial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is deactivated, Dr. Brian Knutson of Stanford University in California and colleagues report.

Based on the activation and deactivation of these regions, Knutson and his team were able to predict whether or not people would purchase something before they were conscience of making a decision.

Knutson's group arrived at their findings after conducting a study with 26 healthy young men and women who were each given $20. During brain MRIs, study participants viewed a series of 40 objects and decided whether or not to purchase them.

The object itself appeared on the screen before the price, according to the report, published in the journal Neuron. Items people decided to buy were shipped to them, but if they didn't buy anything, they kept the $20.

By analyzing activity in the subjects' nucleus accumbens, insula and MPFC as they viewed an item, the researchers were able to predict whether or not they would buy it.

In an interview with Reuters Health, Knutson said the mechanism his team identified underlies every decision we make, from deciding what to have for lunch to whether to buy a certain stock or bond.

"We think it does generalize to other decisions simply because the brain regions we are investigating are ancient," he said. "It's likely that these mechanisms are there for reasons related to perhaps survival."

The investigators are planning to investigate brain activity in people with a more "pathological" relationship to shopping, for example "people who seem insensitive to prices or maybe are too sensitive to attractive items," he said.

The findings could also help explain why it feels easier for many people to buy with a credit card than to shell out cash, the researchers note. "The abstract nature of credit coupled with deferred payment may 'anesthetize' consumers against the pain of paying."
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NewsBot · Jan 10, 2007

Neural Predictors of Purchases
Brian Knutson, Scott Rick, G. Elliott Wimmer, Drazen Prelec, and George Loewenstein
Neuron, Vol 53, 147-156, 04 January 2007

Microeconomic theory maintains that purchases are driven by a combination of consumer preference and price. Using event-related fMRI, we investigated how people weigh these factors to make purchasing decisions. Consistent with neuroimaging evidence suggesting that distinct circuits anticipate gain and loss, 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. Activity from each of these regions independently predicted immediately subsequent purchases above and beyond self-report variables. These findings suggest that activation of distinct neural circuits related to anticipatory affect precedes and supports consumers' purchasing decisions.
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Cameron · Jan 11, 2007

Netizens

Researchers at University of Iowa have previously shown compulsive hoarders may have a problem in their right mesial prefrontal cortex, after studying pathological collectors. They found that damage to the frontal lobes of the brain impaired judgement and caused emotional disturbances. But only when the injury extended to the right mesial prefrontal cortex, did the subjects develop a serious collecting habit. This may be helpful in trying to identify why some people hoard shoes. Other studies in humans with bilateral damage of the ventromedial (VM) prefrontal cortex show that subjects develop severe impairments in decision making. Again this may explain why people compulsively buy shoes they cannot afford.

Research http://ijfp.psyc.uow.edu.au/IJFPArticlesIssue3/Spinella&White.pdf

has also linked abnormality in the right mesial prefrontal cortex with paraphilia. The Prefrontal systems have been associated with several aspects of sexual behavior and human neuroimaging in normal individuals found activation of right prefrontal cortex during both sexual arousal and orgasm. Neuroanatomical differences have been found in the prefrontal cortex of individuals with antisocial personality disorder. Thus it is possible that neurological deficits relate to sex offenses, possibly violent and nonviolent.

Neurological research is comparatively new, but so interesting especially when it sheds light on behaviours and pathologies, previously unexplained.

Cameron

Brain scans predict shoppers' purchasing choices

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NewsBot The Admin that posts the news.

Cameron Well-Known Member

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Brain scans predict shoppers' purchasing choices

NewsBot The Admin that posts the news.

NewsBot The Admin that posts the news.

Cameron Well-Known Member

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Alteration of Plantar Pressure Gradients linked to Alterations in Brain Waves

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