Functional MRI (fMRI), a magnetic resonance imaging technique that permits localizing areas of the brain activated by a stimulus, is gaining more and more interest among advertisers. How does our brain react to an advertisement? This is the question that Imagilys, a company specialized in neuroimaging, is attempting to answer in partnership with Brain Impact, a company specialized in neuromarketing.

The application of recent neuroscience techniques to marketing (neuromarketing) may give insights into the unconscious purchasing behaviours of the consumer. These unconscious behaviours may represent up to 95% of the decision-making process, while the visible tip of the iceberg (the conscious processes), which have been studied by classical marketing research (market studies, product tests, pre- and post-advertising tests) may only represent 5% of this process.

The founding article for neuromarketing by functional MRI was published in the prestigious scientific journal Neuron (McClure et al. Neuron 2004). A team of researchers studied the Coke-Pepsi paradox: during blind taste tests, the majority of testers preferred the taste of Pepsi, despite the fact that they buy more Coke. Functional MRI permitted demonstrating an astonishing fact: invoking the Coke trademark activates large areas of the brain, linked to memory, which shows that consumers are more influenced by their memory of the trademark than they are by the taste of the product.

During a neuromarketing test, the volunteer is stretched out in an MRI scanner. Audiovisual stimuli are presented to him or her while images of the brain are acquired every few seconds. Statistical analysis of the signal variations of these images permits identifying the cerebral areas activated during the presentation of a given stimulus (advertisement, product test, etc.).

Neuromarketing developments could assist advertisers and trademark or product managers to improve the effectiveness of their communications and the quality of their products to best satisfy the conscious and unconscious needs of the consumer. Optimizing the memorability of a trademark, choice of advertising formats, assistance in creation, etc., the applications are broad and are only beginning.

Manipulation? That an ad seeks to influence our choice cannot be denied, that is its purpose. Neuromarketing is only one of the increasing number of tools in the arsenal of advertisers. In any case, it does not permit changing the choice of the consumer or manipulating his or her brain unwittingly. The miracle "buy button" does not exist, but the lovely top-model on the advertising probably still has a bright future!

About Imagilys and Brain Impact:

Imagilys is a company specializing in cerebral imaging, more specifically in functional magnetic resonance imaging. It has joined forces with Brain Impact, a neuromarketing company, in order to propose targeted neuroimaging services applied to marketing in Europe.

After a brain injury, distinction between coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state, akinetic mutism, and locked-in syndrome is a complex challenge for the neurologist (Giacino 1997, Gaciano 2004). The limits which separates these states, and even the definition of "consciousness" are unclear. Some behavioral tests can help in the differential diagnosis, but are impaired by the lack of input/output caused by lesions in primary areas or in white matter pathways.

Minimally conscious state (MCS), which refers to patients with severe brain damage but who demonstrate unequivocal, but intermittent, behavioral evidence of awareness of self or their environment (Giacino et al. 2002), is the most interesting state to study with functional MRI. Identifying any form of consciousness can have great psychological impact on the patient and its family and potentially influence the therapeutic approach.

Functional MRI has the power to detect brain activation elicited by a stimuli even in the absence of patient output. It could therefore be used as a marker of brain activity or even "consciousness" in patient in a vegetative or minimally conscious state. Shiff et al. found similar activations in 2 patient in a MCS than in a group of healthy volunteers presented with passive language (Wernicke's area) and tactile stimulation (post-central gyrus) paradigms. It suggests that some MCS patients may retain widely distributed cortical systems with potential for cognitive and sensory function despite their inability to follow simple instructions or communicate reliably.

Owen et al. 2006 applied a more complex paradigm to further investigate the state of consciousness of a patient in a vegetative state. The patient was asked to perform 2 mental imagery tasks: tennis playing versus walking in a her house. Brain activations observed were identical to the one obtained in healthy volunteers: supplementary motor area (SMA) while mentally playing tennis, parahippocampal gyrus, posterior parietal cortex, and lateral premotor cortex while visiting her house. Of the 54 patients enrolled in a study performed by the same group (Monti et al. 2010), 5 were able to willfully modulate their brain activity. One patient, without any form of communication at the bedside, was able to modulate his brain activity (tennis playing versus walking in his house) to answer yes or no to questions during functional MRI.

Resting state fMRI, i.e. functional MRI without any stimulus, has also been used to assess patients with disorders of consciousness. The default network is defined as a number of areas including the precuneus, bilateral temporo-parietal junctions and medial prefrontal cortex, which are more active at rest than when the subjects are involved in an attention-demanding cognitive task. Vanhaudenhuyse et al. 2009 have showed that the connectivity of this default network is decreased in severely brain-damaged patients, in proportion to their degree of consciousness impairment.

Functional MRI (fMRI) enables the researcher to specifically view the areas of the brain activated by a task or an emotion. Many research groups focused on sex (Maravilla et al. Int J Imp Res 2007)! What happens in the brain in a situation of sexual excitement ? Is it the same thing for men and women ? A trip behind the scenes of pleasure…

Different studies have used the projection of erotic images or video in the MRI, with the aim of stimulating sexual excitement. Easier for men… Even if men and women present many similar bilateral areas of activation: anterior cingulate, medial prefrontal, orbitofrontal, insular, and occipitotemporal cortices, amygdala and ventral striatum. Men activate thalamus and hypothalamus as well, proportionately to their excitement (Karama et al. Hum Brain Mapp 2002). The amygdala as well, which is part of the limbic system, seems to be playing a major role in men (Hamann et al. Nat Neurosci 2004).

Studies in positron emission tomography (PET scan), a technique which is older than the functional MRI, have gone further. They imaged some male volunteers while their partners were stimulating them manually until ejaculation and orgasm (Holstege et al. J Neurosc 2003). Activations were additionally seen in the ventral tegmental area, which is also stimulated by the ecstasy associated with heroin use. Maybe the two phenomenon are not so different!

Please note that in a jealous condition, men present activation in areas linked to sexuality and aggression (amygdala and hypothalamus), whereas in women the rear area of the superior temporal sulcus is stimulated (Takahashi et al. Neuroimage 2006). Beware...

Version française: Sexe et cerveau: quand la Science est "hot"!