WHAT THE CONSUMER’S BRAIN TELLS THE

CONSUMER’S MIND – AND HOW WE CAN DISCOVER WHAT

By
Dr David Lewis-Hodgson BSc (Hons), D.Phil. FISMA, FINSTD, C.Psychol
Director of Research – Mindlab ® International Ltd

“Within the past few years…advances in psychophysiology have stimulated a number of

innovative applications of physiological testing. This approach…is likely to be the next

wave of innovation.” Bruce F. Hall On Measuring the Power of Communications; Journal of

Advertising Research June 2004

“Hey big spender, so refined, wouldn’t you like to know what’s going on in my mind?”

Shirley MacClaine’s mocking query from the 1969 musical Sweet Charity perfectly

describes the challenge long confronting marketing directors, brand managers and

advertising executives.

How to discover precisely what is going on in the minds of consumers as they watch

television advertisements, select products off a supermarket shelf or buy holidays from

travel agents, stroll around car showrooms or, indeed, while they are engaged in any

purchasing decision.

Measuring the effectiveness of such advertising has been a highly contentious issue

for at least twenty-five years an era during which, Bruce Hall commented in a recent

article in the Journal of Advertising Research (1) testing methods have changed little if

at all over this period.

“Over the past three decades,” he comments, “copy testing has not benefited from

significant innovation…Issues that emerged over half a century ago continue to divide

the industry.”

So how can we discover what messages the consumer’s largest subconscious brain is

telling the consumer’s conscious mind when making purchasing decisions?

The most obvious answer might appear to be simply to ask them!

This is of course the route that traditional market research has long taken by means

of surveys and focus groups, which use questionnaires designed and analysed with ever

increasing sophistication. Unfortunately even the most carefully constructed and

painstakingly conducted such research contains significant sources of error.

(1) On Measuring the Power of Communications Journal of Advertising Research Vol 44. No 2. June 2oo4.

Pp 181 - 187

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The Problem with ‘Just Asking’ in Market Research

The main difficulty with this approach is that respondents will, for a variety of

reasons, tell you something other than the truth. Indeed their comments, explanations

and reflections on past and future purchasing decisions may be so wide of the mark as

to be at best useless and at worst profoundly misleading, for two main reasons.

First, such deceptions are due less to any deliberate intention to lie than from a

desire either to provide answers they consider socially acceptable or present themselves

in the best possible light. While market researchers have developed techniques to

minimise such bias, they can do nothing to overcome the second and more serious

barrier to understanding what is going on in a consumer’s mind – the fact he or she

doesn’t really know themselves!

This is due not to any lack of intelligence or insight on their part but simply results

from the way in which the brain functions, reflecting the constant interplay between our

memory, decision making processes and emotional responses many of which will

typically occur below the level of awareness.

Research conducted by myself and other neuropsychologists has shown that at least

95% of consumer decision-making is unconscious. Studies have consistently

demonstrated that the majority of human behaviours are controlled by processes below

the level of conscious awareness. The belief that we are consciously in control of our

actions and decisions is largely illusion.

In a study of decision making involving financial gain or loss conducted by William

Gehring and Adrian Willoughby at the University of Michigan, for example, subjects

were wired up to an EEG (Electroencephalograph) and seated at a computer screen on

which was displayed two boxes, one representing a bet of 5 cents, the other of 25 cents.

Each time the subject selected a box it changed colour: red denoted they had lost the

amount displayed and green meant they had won it.

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 The study showed that a quarter of a second after the subject had learned of their

win or loss they showed a dip in activity an area of the brain known as the medial

frontal cortex, with a string of losses creating an ever decreasing dip. Gehring and

Willoughby argued that this was direct neurological evidence of what is known as

‘gamblers fallacy’ the decision-making error whereby after a string of losses, people

increasingly conclude that they must be ‘due’ for a win.

They demonstrated that such decision-making must be emotional in nature since it

occurred far too rapidly to be the result of conscious deliberation. It also provided an

excellent example of how QEEG (Quantified Electroencephalography) can reveal

important clues as to the unconscious nature of much consumer decision-making.

Emotions, Decisions and Memories

Emotions play a far more significant part in consumer decision-making than does

purely rational, logical decision-making. One reason for this is that because the

emotional part of our brain is far older, in evolutionary terms, than our rational brain it

is more fundamental to our decision-making. As Harvard marketing professor Gerald

Zaltman comments: “Brain scans and other physiological-function measures

demonstrate that activations among brain cells, or neurons, precede our conscious

awareness of a thought and precede activity in areas of the brain involving verbal

language. In fact, these latter neuronal areas become active only later, after a person

unconsciously chooses to represent these thoughts to herself or to others using verbal

language.”

Another area of market research in which QEEG can provide essential insights lies

in investigating the ways in which consumers attend to and make sense of commercial

messages, most of which occurs not in words, but in images and feelings.

Research into memory divides memories into two basic types: explicit and implicit.

Explicit memories are those we are able to consciously describe.

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 These are the type of memories we talk about, and recall when asked to remember a

particular decision. Numerous research papers have demonstrated that explicit

memories are highly malleable and often of limited validity. For example, the order,

manner and presentation of questions given to subjects in a questionnaire, survey or

focus group session will affect the answers respondents give. Research has also

demonstrated that explicit memories are unreliable: a consumer’s recall of a spending

decision will change over time.

However, implicit memories and processing are unconscious and can only be

detected indirectly through their influence on our behaviour.

Research over the last few years has demonstrated that implicit processing is a far

more accurate predictor of behaviour than explicit processing. This is especially true

when a consumer’s explicitly reported thoughts on a product are at odds with their

implicit thought processes on it.

In other words we only become consciously aware of our buying decisions once they

have been made, at which point we seek to justify them.

It is these intellectual justifications the consumer describes during traditional

market research interviews. Like an iceberg, at least nine tenths of consumer

information lies beneath the surface, unseen. Not being able to efficiently explore this

depth of customer information results in unnecessary product failures and missed

opportunities.

During the last decade, brain researchers discovered more about the workings of

the human mind than during all previous years. In the words of leading neuroscientist

Antonio Damasio: “More may have been learned about the brain and the mind in the

1990s – the so-called decade of the brain – than during the entire previous history of

psychology and neuroscience.”

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 We now have a suite of experimental tools for probing the unconscious of the

customer, and can explore the 90% of the consumer-information iceberg. New

Neuromarketing techniques allow us to explore the implicit side of a consumers

thinking that conventional market research techniques cannot pick up on. The only way

to get at the truth is not so much to ask individual consumers what they think and feel

as to analyse physical processes going on deep in their brain while these thought

processes are occurring.

Contrary to popular fears about neuromarketing being able to ‘control consumers

minds’, these techniques instead provide a fuller and deeper explanation of how

consumers will act. This information then has the potential to provide greater value to

consumers by understanding them deeper than the typical surface-level appraisal.

As Bruce Hall rightly comments – “the body does not lie.”

What is QEEG?

QEEG stands for Quantified Electroencephalography. This is a recording ("graph")

of electrical signals ("electro") from the brain ("encephalo") obtained by placing sensors

on the surface of the scalp to pick up electrical signals naturally generated by the brain.

The ‘Quantified’ aspect means that the raw EEG, which is impossible for anyone but a

specialists to interpret is processed through a computer to provide a more revealing and

easily understood output.

History of the Discovery of the EEG

Dr Richard Caton, a Liverpool physician and medical school lecturer, who placed

electrodes directly onto the exposed surfaces of laboratory animals, first recorded EEG

signals in 1875. To obtain his results he made use of a reflecting galvanometer, which

had been, invented some seventeen years earlier Lord Kelvin.

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 This amplified the tiny electrical currents generated in the brain by changing the

position of a mirror attached to galvanometer coils, so producing a far larger movement

by mean of a reflected spot of light.

In 1887, Caton told delegates to the Ninth International Medical Congress in

Washington, D.C. that when he interrupted a beam of light directed towards the

experimental animal's eye, he detected changes in the electrical activity, which occurred

in the opposite side of the brain from the eye. Most physiologists, however, remained in

ignorance of Richard Caton's work because he published his reports in medical journals

while their reading was confined to scientific journals.

In 1890, a Polish doctor named Adolph Beck of Poland repeated Caton’s studies

and found that while a sudden sensory stimulus such as a flash of light, produced

response at a single point, this was accompanied by a widespread reduction of a type of

relatively slow, regular, patterns of brain waves. However it took another sixty years

before neuroscientists identified parts of the brain involved in these responses, an area

known as the reticular activating system, which plays a key part in regulating brain

state.

Around the same time a German, Fleischel von Marxow made similar discoveries

which he described in a report which, rather than take the risk of professional ridicule by

publishing he hid away in a bank vault. In was only after Beck published his own findings

in a physiological journal that von Marxow released them in order to claim credit for the

discovery. However his attempt failed after Professor Caton wrote to the journal informing

them of his own earlier publication. Around the same time as Caton was carrying out his

research, similar Vasili Yakovlevich Danilevsky was also conducting studies in Russia a

graduate student. Although his experiments were made in 1876 he did not publish them

until his doctoral thesis appeared the following year, two years after Caton.

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 Between the work of Vasili Danilevsky and Adoph Beck, another Russian, Nikolai Y.

Wedensky, used a telephone receive to eavesdrop on electrical waves in the brains of cats

and dogs. In 1912, Vladimir V. Pravdich-Neminsky published photographic recordings of

brain waves in dogs.

The honour of being first scientist to record electroencephalographs from human

brains, however, goes to Dr. Hans Berger, an Austrian psychiatrist, who for this reason is

often called ‘The Father of EEG’.

Soon after obtaining his doctorate from the University of Jena, in 1897, Berger read

about Richard Caton's studies and was inspired to conduct early, and inconclusive, studies

using animals. It was not only after World War I that he turned his attention to looking for

the EEG in the human brain. In the early 1920s, he succeeded in obtaining readings by

using patients, part of whose brains had been exposed through damage to their skulls. This

enabled him to adopt Canton’s approach of placing electrodes directly on the membrane

covering the otherwise exposed brain. Among his discoveries were regular waves at about

10 cycles per second, which he named the Alpha since they were the first to be identified in

the human EEG.

In 1929 he published the results of experiments, conducted five years earlier using

his then 15-year-old son, Klaus, as a subject. His data comprised some 73 recordings, the

first ever published of EEGs in humans. Of these he wrote: “The electroencephalogram

represents a continuous curve with continuous oscillations in which ... one can distinguish

larger first order waves with an average duration of 90 milliseconds and smaller second

order waves of an average duration of 35 milliseconds [Beta waves]. The larger deflections

measure at most 150 to 200 microvolts....we see in the electroencephalogram a

concomitant phenomenon of the continuous nerve processes which take place in the brain,

exactly as the electrocardiogram represents a concomitant phenomenon of the

contractions of the individual segments of the heart."

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 Within a year, Berger had made more than a thousand recordings from 76 subjects

and used these as the basis of a second paper in which he first named both Alpha and Beta

waves as well as introducing the acronym EEG to stand for ElectroEncephaloGram.

Berger reported that the amplitude of the Beta waves was smaller than Alpha,

despite the fact that he was able to demonstrate that Beta waves were related to mental

concentration and to startle reactions.

Despite these groundbreaking discoveries, Berger's work was ignored by the

majority of scientists who believed that overall brain wave recordings would just be

‘confused roars’ and later because they claimed that Alpha waves were merely "dull"

regular waves. Gradually, however, Berger’s contribution came to be more and more

widely recognised in all countries except anti-Jewish Nazi Germany. In September 1938,

Berger was forced to resign from the university and although twice considered for the

Nobel Prize, the Nazis prevented him from accepting the honour. In 1941 Berger was

driven to suicide.

My own interest in EEG and its possible role in market research started while I was

working in the department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex during

the mid 1980’s. This arose from a desire to find a suitable stimulus when studying the

response of both highly stressed and normal subjects. Television commercials struck me as

an ideal medium, since not only had they been carefully crafted to be as memorable and

persuasive as possible, but their short duration – around 30 seconds – ensured that not

too much data was generated for analysis by the relatively crude software then available to

me, most of which I was obliged to write myself in the absence of commercially available

code.

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 Dr Lewis at work with a subject during his early studies of EEG.

For many years my use of commercials continued as an entirely academic pursuit

and it is only much more recently that it has started to attract interest from commercial

organisations and advertising agencies.

So what exactly is EEG? How does it arise, how can we measure it and what does it

all mean?

Our Electric Brains

At around 1,500 grams the human brain represents just 2% of our body weight yet

consumers 60% of the glucose produced and requires 20% of the total energy. Much of

this is used to produce electricity. The brain cell mainly responsible for storing and

transmitting information is the neuron. Communications between neurons involves the

flow of various ions, such as sodium, potassium, chlorine, or calcium, into and out of each

neuron. Since ions have an electric charge, communication brings about changes in the

electrical potential inside relative to the outside of the cell. This activity can be detected by

means of sensors attached to the scalp and connected to an EEG.

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 Because mental and neural activities are one and the same, every thought that we

have, every emotion we feel and each action we take is associated with different patterns of

activity in vast networks of interconnected neurons that make up our brain.

This means that every cognition, even those occurring below our normal level of

consciousness, has a corresponding electrical signature that is, at least in theory, capable

of detection.

That the task of acquiring, interpreting and using EEG signals is far from

straightforward is hardly surprising given the staggering complexity of the human brain

with its hundreds of billions of neurons each of which forms synapses (chemical junctions)

with and average of 10,000 other neurons and leads to more than 7 million kilometres of

‘wiring’ all within an organ around the size of a coco-nut!

As a consequence, even the most trivial mental activity, such as wondering where

you have left your car keys, involves large, highly distributed networks of millions of

neurons all working together. This electrical activity can be detected as "brain waves"

whose frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz) - or cycles per second) - and power

(amplitude) are continually varying depending on mental state and the intellectual

challenges being faced.

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 Since their discovery by Hans Berger brain waves have been classified into a

number of bands according to their frequency. While there is still no universal agreement

on exactly which frequencies belong in which category, most research papers explicitly

define the frequency ranges associated with each label, and rarely deviate by more than 1

Hz from the labels described below.

Delta (0.5 – 4 Hz) reflects very slow, high amplitude oscillations of neural populations

and may be seen in many brain regions. It is particularly associated with sleep.

Theta (4-8 Hz) also appears widely distributed across the brain. It is associated with very

relaxed or deep meditative states and is prevalent during some sleep stages.

Alpha (8-13 Hz) is most widespread over the occipital (vision) and parietal (sensory)

regions of the brain, and is typically associated with relaxed wakefulness and appears in

lighter sleep stages.

Mu (8-13 Hz) is the name applied to alpha waves when present in the frontal regions of

the brain. These are most evident over the posterior frontal lobe, the region that contains

motor processing areas. The mu rhythm is most pronounced when subjects are motionless

and becomes desynchronized when subjects either see someone else moving or

contemplate moving themselves again consistent with the view that rhythmic

synchronized activity reflects an idling rhythm.

Beta (13-40 Hz) usually comprises irregular, very small amplitude waves, which are most

prevalent over frontal regions when the subject is alert and engaged in a task requiring

mental activity.

Gamma (40 – 100 Hz) high frequency waves associated with memory consolidation and

recall.

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 Neuromarketing researchers employ their knowledge of the presence or absence of

these frequency, together with their strength (amplitude) and location to answer such

practical questions as how viewers are responding, second by second, to a television

commercial, what is going through their minds while window shopping in a shopping mall,

how they are reacting to the designs of a new car, artwork or packaging designs.

These answers are sought within a very substantial body of research literature in

which the EEG record is recognized as a by product of the neural activity responsible for a

specific thought, emotion or action – especially those which arise below the level of

conscious awareness.

Such mental activity is, by definition unable to be put into words and, as a result,

unavailable to traditional qualitative research no matter how experienced the researcher

or how co-operative the respondent.

How EEG Readings are obtained before recordings can be obtained the subject must first

be prepared (“prepped”) so as to obtain clean signals. This involved lightly – and entirely

painlessly - abrading the area under each electrode to remove the top layer of skin cells,

which are dead and therefore poor conductors of electricity. This reduces the noise

generated by changes in electrodermal activity, called the galvanic skin response or GSR.

The next step is to introduce a conductive gel between the skin and the electrode after

which it is usually necessary to ‘fine-tune’ the contact by adding more gel and gently

manipulating the electrode while monitoring electrical resistance until this drops to an

acceptable threshold (typically 5,000 Ohms).

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 EEG signals are often recorded from an electrode cap containing an array of electrodes.

These may contain as many as 256 recording sites, though typical caps use 16, 32, 64, or

128 sites. High-density arrays can yield more information, especially about the spatial

distribution of the electrical activity.

In our studies we typically use 20 electrodes although the total can vary depending

on the requirements of a particular study. Clearly the more electrodes the more precise are

the measurements than can be made from specific regions of the brain. When only the

balance of output between left and right hemispheres is required, for example, four

electrodes (plus a reference and ground electrode) may suffice. This would be useful, for

example, if one wanted to find out whether the features and benefits of a particular

product or message were being assessed mainly factually (high left brain activity in the

majority of right handed people) or evoking a largely imaginative response (high right

brain activity).

Subject wearing an elctro-cap during a study of driver behaviour for the Ministry

of Transport.

In addition to scalp electrodes, experimenters often record from one or two

electrodes near the eyes to detect the electrical activity associated with eye movements

(called the electrooculogram or EOG), as well as an electrode to serve as a ground.

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 Data containing excess artifact from eye movements or other activities such as

fidgeting or swallowing is sometimes thrown out as “artifact,” though it is also possible to

remove to remove such noise from the data using modern software.

The arrangement of electrodes is known as a ‘montage’ and the type selected varies

depending on the requirements of the task.

In a ‘monopolar montage’, each electrode is paired with a common reference. This

common reference may be a single electrode placed at a “neutral” site (i.e. the mastoid or

earlobe) whose activity is assumed not to be affected by brain activity; equally it may be an

average of two or more electrodes.

In what is called a ‘bipolar montage, electrodes are grouped in non-overlapping

pairs, and potentials are recorded between each pair. This means that a bipolar montage

intended to record 16 waveforms requires 32 electrodes.

Because neuromarketing studies are, typically, conducted in noisy environments,

where electrical devices can create considerable interference, bipolar differential

recording, in which the activity at one site is measured relative to another nearby scalp site

are often used. Since both scalp sites tend to pick up about the same noise, most noise is

cancelled out, and the remaining signal reflects the difference in activity between two scalp

sites.

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Processing EEG Signals

EEG signals, which are typically of the order of 100 microvolts must first be

amplified by a factor of between 5,000 to 10,000 times. Next they are filtered to remove

frequencies not of interest in a particular study. This is a crucial step in noise reduction,

since certain types of artifact occur at known frequencies and cognitive activity very rarely

occurs outside of the 3-40 Hz range. Four types of filters are typically employed:

1] Low Pass filters allow low frequency information to pass, but removes higher

frequencies. A typical low pass filter setting is 100 Hz.

2] High Pass filters allow high frequencies and remove lower ones. Typical high pass

setting is 0.01 Hz.

3] Band Pass filters, which combine low and high pass filters, allows only a band of

frequencies to pass.

4] Notch filters remove all frequencies in a certain range. The most common notch filter is

either 50Hz (UK) or 60 Hz (USA) to remove the significant noise created by electrical

currents [50Hz UK/60 Hz US].

In the final stage signals are converted from analog to digital, using an ADB

[Acronym for Analog to Digital Board], which enables them to be processed by a digital

computer. Advances in microelectronics have resulted in the development of small and

inexpensive chips, which are capable of digitizing EEG data, and these have now replaced

the ADB in most modern EEG equipment.

Though A/D conversion equipment can easily sample on the order of GHz, EEG

data is rarely sampled above 512 Hz because the brain simply does not operate fast enough

to justify higher frequencies. Sampling too fast provides unnecessary data that could be

interpolated if necessary from adjacent data points. Sampling too slowly creates the risk of

missing certain frequencies.

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QEEG Analytical Techniques

In QEEG, multi-channel recordings are analyzed using a mathematical procedure

known as Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to quantify the power at each frequency of the

EEG averaged across the entire sample, known as the power spectrum. The test-retest

replicability of power spectra computed in this way has been shown to be highly

reproducible. As mentioned above, the power spectrum of commercial interest is generally

considered to extend from about 1Hz to 30Hz (cycles per second).

Results from each electrode can be represented as absolute power in each band,

relative power in each band (percentage of total power in each channel), coherence (a

measure of synchronization between activity in two channels) or symmetry (the ratio of

power in each band between a symmetrical pair of electrodes).

Research has shown that the power spectra of large samples of healthy, individuals

across a wide age range undergo systematic changes occur between the ages of 17 and 64

in the average power in the delta, theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands.

More recently normative data have been extended to cover the age range from 1 to

95 years for each electrode in the standardized International 10-20 System and have been

broadened to include measures of absolute power, relative power, mean frequency,

coherence, and symmetry, as well as covariance matrices that quantify normal brain

relationships, multivariate composite measures which are unique to QEEG.

The independence of the normative QEEG descriptors from cultural and ethnic

factors enables objective assessment of brain integrity in persons of any age, origin, or

background. This independence and specificity, as well as high replicability, has been

established in studies from Barbados, China, Cuba, Germany, Holland, Japan, Korea,

Mexico, Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, and Venezuela.

In summary a voluminous literature attests to the robustness of QEEG as a

powerful and reliable neuromarketing methodology.

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 Modern analytical procedures offer commercial organisations an unsurpassed

capacity to measure and to analyse consumer brain patterns under a wide variety of

environmentally realistic scenarios.

Neuromarketing

The term ‘Neuromarketing’ was only coined - by Professor Ale Smidts -in 2002 and

it was not until 2004 that the first ever Neuromarketing conference was held at Baylor

College of Medicine in Houston. Today many leading market research professionals are

describing Neuromarketing as representing the greatest advance in their industry for more

than quarter of a century. As I have already explained, my own interest in the subject

started during the late 1980’s with experiments conducted at the University of Sussex.

At this time I also began by developing equipment which was used to translate

brain activity (EEG) into a control signal which would allow people, especially the severely

disabled, to control various electrical devices by means of ‘thought power’ alone. Today

this technique, known as Brain Computer Interfacing is a major research topic which

offers considerable hope for those with serious physical disabilities.

Later I examined ways of enabling stressed and anxious individuals to relax, to

become more creative and production by learning how to control brain activity by

means of strobe lights and neurofeedback. The latter is a process whereby what is

happening inside the brain is fed-back to that brain enabling the individual to lean ways

of increasing or decreasing specific frequencies.

During the past ten years, developments in both electronics and software mean the

torrent of information can be kept to manageable proportions without loss of vital

information while the data is presented in an easily interpreted manner making it easy

for non-specialists to understand how different individuals are responding to their

commercial messages and instantly to identify both the strengths and weaknesses of

this message.

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 Furthermore because the equipment is easily portable subjects can be recorded in

real life situations, such as when shopping, wandering around a car show room,

watching a cinema advertisement or a television commercial in the comfort of their own

home.

When combined with other specialist equipment it is also possible to correlate

precisely what that individual was seeing and hearing at the precise moment brain

activity was being recorded.

While this may sound complicated, all it means is that the information can be

analysed over a required period of time and the final output readily understood by non-

specialists.

When analysing a television commercial, for example, time frames can be selected

corresponding to the length of individual scenes. This enables the impact generated by

each scene, together with its relationship to the rest of the commercial to be evaluated

and compared.

Technology of Neuromarketing

There are two main techniques of brain analysis currently being used – fMRI and

QEEG. In my view the former, although it has received a great deal of publicity in the

general, technical and trade press is not a viable option for market research. Why this is

so I will explain in a moment after describing what the two technologies involve.

What is fMRI?

The acronym stands for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and in order to

understand how it works, it is first necessary to understand something of the way

conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI scanning uses a very strong

magnet and radio waves to produce astonishingly detailed images of the brain or other

bodily structures.

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 These images which reveal brain anatomy at high resolution (a typical MRI scan

will divide the brain into some 124 wave thin slices) are used in virtually all modern

hospitals to diagnose a wide variety of brain disorders, including brain tumours,

multiple sclerosis, and stroke.

In order to obtain these images the patient must lie motionless on the examination

table and slide their head inside a giant magnetic ring. This causes some of the atoms

(or, more precisely, particles inside the atoms, called protons) inside the patient's head

to align with the magnetic field. A pulse of radio waves is then directed at the patient's

head and some of it is absorbed by the protons, knocking them out of alignment. The

protons, however, gradually realign themselves, emitting radio waves as they do.

The radio waves are captured by a radio receiver and are sent to a computer, which

constructs the brain image. Different parts of the brain respond to the radio waves

differently, and emit slightly different radio signals depending, among other things, on

the local water and fat content. The computer that receives all of the signals, therefore,

is able to distinguish one brain structure from another. The patient can sense neither

the magnet nor the radio waves and only knows the machine is working at all due to the

sounds made while scanning.

MRI and fMRI

Functional MRI (fMRI), developed in the early 1990s, is a variation of magnetic

resonance imaging. It uses a conventional MRI scanner, but takes advantage of two

additional phenomena. The first is that blood contains iron, which is the oxygen-

carrying part of haemoglobin inside red blood cells, and that these atoms cause small

distortions in the magnetic field around them. (1)

(1) Not all iron atoms do this. In the case of blood it is only iron which has not been bound to oxygen

(deoxyhaemoglobin) which produces this effect.

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 The second key phenomenon underlying fMRI is the fact that whenever any part of

the brain becomes active, the small blood vessels in that specific region dilate, causing

more blood to rush in order to provide extra oxygen and fuel (glucose) for the active

brain cells. As a result a large amount of freshly oxygenated blood pours into any active

regions of the brain reducing the amount of oxygen-free (deoxy-) haemoglobin and

causing a small change in the magnetic field and, consequently, in the MRI signal, in

the active region. In the early 1990s, it was shown that an MRI scanner can be used to

detect this small change in the signal and, in doing so, identify those areas of the brain

have been activated.

If, for example, a patient lying in a scanner is suddenly shown a flash of light, the

visual cortex in his brain will become activated, blood flow to that region will rapidly

increase, and the MRI signal will change.

The result is usually displayed as a patchy area of colour, representing the brain

area activated, superimposed upon a conventional, high-resolution, grey-scale image of

the subject's brain.

Although undoubtedly seductive the colourful brain images produced are the

result of high-level computer processing and cannot be interpreted “without a detailed

understanding of the analytical methods by which they are generated.” (2)

In fMRI, the same scanner is optimized to detect small changes in blood flow in the

brain in response to scientifically designed stimuli. In principle, fMRI can be used to

observe the activation of brain structures in response to almost any kind of brief

stimulation, ranging from sounds, to visual images, to gentle touching of the skin.

At Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, for example, neuroscientists have shown

that the brain registers a preference for Coke of Pepsi similar to that chosen by the

subjects in blind taste tests.

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 Similarly, studies conducted by Richard Silberstein, a neuroscientist with the Brain

Sciences Institute at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia

has demonstrated that successful advertisements generate both high levels of emotional

engagement and long-term memory encoding: “People who are more likely to purchase

a product show significantly higher memory encoding than those who are less likely,” he

has been reported as stating.

The Problems of using fMRI for Neuromarketing

While fMRI provides a detailed record of brain activity at any particular time the

procedure is fraught with problems when it comes to using it for the purposes of

commercial neuromarketing research. fMRI machines are cumbersome pieces of

equipment, which have to be used within fixed, specialist, locations. This means that

subjects must travel to the machine for testing and only one person can be tested at a

time. While commercial messages can be sent to the volunteers either by means of a

mirror which direct images into their field of view or using goggles fitted with miniature

television screens or.

Furthermore the subject cannot react to the images with any sudden movement,

which would distort the scan. Both methods are, of course, highly artificial and may well

introduce a significant bias into any results. As the Nature Neuroscience commented the

results are: "Invariably produced under controlled laboratory conditions and it is a major

leap to extrapolate to a genetically and culturally diverse population of people in an almost

infinite variety of real world situations."

(2) Nature Neuroscience 7, 683 (2004)

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 Although the process is considered absolutely harmless this noisy clanging makes

many people nervous while any who are claustrophobic may start to panic. Indeed

worldwide some 7 per cent of subjects are unsuitable for fMRI scanning for this very

reason. Even when they are made only mildly apprehensive by the procedure, such anxiety

will of course exert a profound influence on their response to commercial messages.

Two further major drawbacks are cost and time. MRI scanners are extremely

expensive to buy (around $1 million) and must be operated by highly trained technicians.

Currently running a single subject through an fMRI scanner costs around $1,000 with the

bill for large-scale studies frequently exceeding $250,000. Although the time taking to

record the image is reasonably rapid – up to about 10 minutes for a very detailed picture –

it can then require up to 20 hours to process the images through a computer.

The length of time taken to record the image, although reasonably short, still means

that the best a market researcher can hope for is a snapshot, taken over a period of up to

ten minutes, of how the brain is responding. It would not be possible, for instance, to

analyse how the brain was responding moment by moment to the rapid sequence of

changing images and sounds that make up a typical television commercial.

Quantified Electroencephalography (QEEG)

Of all the imaging modalities currently being employed in the fledgling field of

neuromarketing date provided by EEG and QEEG studies is the most practical using

relatively simple, inexpensive, compact equipment capable of quantitatively assessing

brain activity with a sensitivity and temporal resolution superior to those of any other

imaging method.

As previously explained, this involves measuring and recording electrical activity in

the brain while the individual is looking at and/or listening to and/or experiencing the

desired commercial experience.

23
 Electrical activity of each brain region is homeostatically regulated, resulting in

predictable frequency composition of the background EEG. Furthermore research has

also established that the EEG power spectrum is independent of ethnic background.

Artefact-free EEG evaluated relative to such norms displays few deviant values in healthy,

normally functioning individuals. Evidence from brain imaging methods such a

Electroencephalography (QEEG) and event-related potentials (ERP) analysis, topographic

QEEG and statistical probability mapping has unequivocally established that aspects of

consumer cognition and emotional responses to commercial messages, occurring below

the level of conscious awareness, can be successfully monitored in real time and analysed

with sufficient depth and accuracy to provide an invaluable window on their inner decision

making processes.

Using the most sophisticated available equipment and algorithms the process is

capable of virtually “reading the mind” of consumers at the most basic level of brain

function by observing the type of mental activity occurring and the regions which are most

active as the individual is experiencing the marketing or advertising message.

As mentioned above, this can be done either in a fixed location, such as a work or

home environment, or while the consumer is actually making his or her purchasing

decisions in a supermarket, shopping mall or showroom.

Exactly what is going on in their minds can be recorded in real time on a second by

second basis on each side of the brain and within specific regions of the brain. The process

can reveal, for example, whether a message is being thought about logically and

analytically or at a more imaginative and emotional level.

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 A television commercial for a car, for example, might be viewed at either a logical

level, where the viewer is thinking about those technical aspects of the vehicle described in

the advertisement (left brain activity in a majority of right handed individuals) or to evoke

a sense of excitement, inviting the viewer to fantasise being behind the wheel and vividly

imagining what it would be like to drive that vehicle.

Among the many essential items of marketing information which QEEG and

associated physiological measures provide are:

1. The precise colour, shape and design that works best for a new product.

2. Which one of a number of preliminary edits or “animatic” versions of a

television commercial is most likely to ensure brand recognition and/or

generate positive emotions towards the product.

3. The extent to which key marketing messages are likely to be consolidated

into long-term memory.

4. The type of displays most likely to generate the desire to buy.

5. The sort of music that will prove is most persuasive when accompanying a

commercial or being played in a store.

6. Whether or not the viewer’s attention during a commercial message is

maintained at the point of branding

7. What is happening inside a potential customer’s brain as he, or she, studies

different aspects of a large and sophisticated product such as a car, a

computer or hi-fi?

8. Whether a radio commercial or a poster advertisement will best capture the

attention of a target market?

9. Which groups of potential customers will prove more open to a visual or an

auditory message?

10. Which colour, shape and design works best for a new product?

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 11. Which of a number of initial edits on a television commercial is most likely to

ensure brand recognition and/or generate positive emotions towards the

product?

12. Which type of window displays is most likely to arouse interest and generate

a desire to buy?

13. What type of music is most persuasive when accompanying a commercial or

being played in store.

14. Whether or not the viewer’s attention during a television commercial is

maintained at the point of branding.

15. What is happening inside a potential customer’s brain as he, or she, studies

different aspects of a large a complex product such as a car?

The Technology Employed

In our studies we make wide use of highly portable EEGs, which can easily be

carried around by respondents. About the size of a paper back book (see

illustration above) this stores up to 24 hours of data on a built in hard drive and is

capable of measuring other physiological parameters such as heart rate, rate of

breathing and muscle tension.

26
 A young female shopper tours a UK shopping mall equipment with electrodes and

carrying an EEG in her shopping bag.

During shopping trips and on others when it is necessary to correlate brain activity

with some specific aspect of such an experience the volunteers also wear a pair of

seemingly ordinary sunglasses, which contain a pinhole camera in the bridge. This enables

digital video recordings, in full colour and with sound that provides a volunteer’s eye view

of the unfolding event. Time coding enables specific brain patterns to be precisely related

to what the subject was looking at – and hearing – at any point in the trip.

Output from these brain monitors (EEGs) can be displayed in a wide variety of

ways, for example as a graphic of the brain which uses different colours to reveal the

patterns of electrical activity in different regions, as illustrated below.

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 Topographic brain maps produced during a study of responses to different facial

expressions conducted for Hewlett Packard. In the first a female respondent is looking at a

picture of a (male) actor displaying an expression of happiness and in the second one of

disgust. The frequency shown here comprises the Alpha wave band and the various colours

show the amplitude (power) of the signal with red and yellow colours indicating higher

amplitudes than green and blue. The first map shows a far higher level of relaxation –

especially in the right frontal lobes – than does the second.

28
 About Dr David Lewis-Hodgson

Dr David Lewis at work in his laboratory. (Photo Steven Matthews)

Dr David Lewis has been working in the field of neuroscience for the past thirty

years and is a Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society. He has a First

Class Honours degree in Psychology from the University of Westminster and a

doctorate from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex

where he later lectured in clinical psychology and psychopathology. He is a Fellow of

the Royal Society of Medicine, the International Stress Management Association and

the Institute of Directors and a member of the American Association for the

Advancement of Science, the International Association of Neuronal Regulation & the

International Society for Bioelectromagnetism. A frequent lecturer at the international

business conferences he is the author of more than a dozen international best sellers on

aspects of brain function and consumerism in The Soul of the New Consumer:

Authenticity – What We Buy & Why in the New Economy.

29
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