The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind Read Free Page B

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Neuromarketing
    Technology
    At the end of this chapter, you’ll know and be able to use the following:
    r Why it’s critical to use a dense array of EEG sensors to cover the whole brain
    r Why neurological testing can rely on sample sizes far smaller than surveys and even some focus groups, and get results that are more scientifically accurate
    r The differences between EEG, fMRI, and biometrics So much attention is being paid to the advances that neuromarketing is making in today’s marketplace that its origins have gone largely unnoticed. I want to shine a little light on the reasons why this marriage of science and marketing was consummated, and the driving forces behind it.
    It usually surprises audiences I address to learn that electroencephalography (EEG), the basic technology underlying most brainwave-based neuromarketing and the form of neurological testing that we use at NeuroFocus, is not really new. In fact, it is the staple methodology used in neuroscience laboratories around the world.
    Hans Berger made the first practical application of EEG measurement in the 1920s. He was the first scientist to design sensors to pick up electrical signals naturally emanating from the brain, and his discovery is directly responsible for our ability today to capture brainwave activity as accurately and reliably as we do. He understood from the start that his invention could and should be used to measure the brain’s full range of activity, not just an extremely small portion of it. When you consider how limited the state of neuroscience knowledge was some eight decades ago compared to today, Dr. Berger’s comprehension and foresight is all the more impressive.
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    The Buying Brain
    But in some key respects, his invention was the classic example of a great idea ahead of its time. EEG sensors could acquire the previously elusive tiny microvolts of electricity that are produced by brain activity, but the technology to integrate and fully analyze them was lacking. It would remain so until the advent of transistors, microprocessors, and the subsequent blossoming of digital technology many years later. Combined, these elements enabled us to untangle the complex interplay of brain electrical dynamics. It really took matching microchips with those microvolts before we could take full advantage of Berger’s Flapper Age discovery.
    It was quite a span of time from the Depression to the Digital Dawn, but EEG methodology coupled with fast, large memory-capacity computers enabled scientists at last to explore and, most importantly, understand the inner workings of the brain for the first time. However, even today, with all the processing power we have at our fingertips, we are still plumbing the depths of this amazing organ and making new discoveries on a daily basis.
    Cortical Geography
    The second element in the birth of neuromarketing is what we have learned about the brain’s basic structure and the way it functions. Hopefully you won’t tire of this fact, because I mention it in these pages several times, but it is central to grasp the concept that the brain is really an incredibly complex and interwoven series of neural networks. The chapters on the brain and the senses delve into this phenomenon in great detail, but it’s worth noting here because it is at the core of EEG measurement of brainwave activity.
    There are seemingly endless statistics about the brain, but a few call out for mention here:
    The brain—that supercomputer inside your skull—is capable of roughly 200 million billion calculations per second.
    This massive interconnectivity is what enables the human brain to perform all the amazing things we do, from walking upright and chewing gum at the same time, to scoring operas, performing brain surgery, and everything in between. As much as we have learned by isolating and identifying the brain’s