Neuroscientists Measure Brain's Response to Super Bowl Ads

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by: Ilya Vedrashko

Edge.org writes: "This year, at the UCLA Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Marco Iacoboni and his group used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain responses in a group of subjects while they were watching the Super Bowl ads.

What is quite surprising is the strong disconnect that can be seen between what people say and what their brain activity seem to suggest. In some cases, people singled out ads that elicited very little brain responses in emotional, reward-related, and empathy-related areas.

The picture shows the brain activation associated with the Michelob's Super Bowl ad. The activity in these areas may represent some form of empathic response. Or, given that these areas are also premotor areas for mouth movements, it may represent the simulated action of drinking a beer elicited in viewers by the ad."
— via Boing Boing

Original Post: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2006/02/neuroscientists-measure-brains.html