ScienceNow reports that when neuroeconomist Gregory Berns used functional magnetic resonance to image the brains of teenagers while they listened to songs, he found that the average activity elicited by a song in the reward centers of the brain was a better predictor of a song’s commercial success than the likability ratings for the song assigned by the subjects.
The potential to use brains scans as marketing tool is an issue that we will hear more about on October 4 and 5 at Nobel 47, The Brain and Being Human.