Mind-reading machine to revolutionise market research?

Market researchers may soon no longer need to worry over the accuracy of verbal feedback from focus or sample groups about how memorable their advertising campaigns are. They could instead take advantage of a brain scanner that enables them to read volunteers' minds.

Neuroscientists at University College London have used brain scans to delve into people’s thoughts and predict which films they were thinking about. The researchers asked six women and four men, with an average age of 21, to watch three film clips, each lasting seven seconds.

The clips showed different actresses performing three tasks – posting a letter, throwing a coffee cup in the bin and getting on a bike. The volunteers were then placed in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner and asked to recall each clip in turn.

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