Is there a “buy button” in your brain? Some corporations are teaming up with neuroscientists to find out. This work in neuromarketing uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (F.M.R.I.), a brain-scanning device that tracks blood flow as we perform mental tasks. In recent years, researchers have discovered that regions such as the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the hypothalamus are dynamic switchboards that blend memory, emotions, and biochemical triggers. These interconnected neurons shape the ways that fear, panic, exhilaration, and social pressure influence our choices.

Scientists know that specific regions of the brain light up in these scans to show increased blood flow when a person recognizes a face, hears a song, makes a decision, or senses deception. Now they are trying to harness this technology to measure consumers’ reactions to movie trailers, choices about automobiles, the appeal of a pretty face, and loyalty to specific brands. British researchers recorded brain activity as shoppers toured a virtual store. They claim to have identified the neural region that becomes active when a shopper decides which product to pluck from a supermarket shelf. DaimlerChrysler took brain scans of men as they looked at photos of cars and confirmed that sports cars activated their reward centers. The company’s scientists found that the most popular vehicles—the Porsche- and Ferrari-style sports cars—triggered activity in a section of the brain called the fusiform face area, which governs facial recognition. Apparently, the cars reminded the men of faces with two lit eyes.

A study that took brain scans of people as they drank competing soft-drink brands illustrates how loyalty to a brand colors our reactions even at a basic, physiological level. When the researchers monitored brain scans of 67 people who did a blind taste test of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, each soft drink lit up the brain’s reward system, and the participants were evenly split as to which drink they preferred—even though three out of four participants said they preferred Coke. When told they were drinking Coke, the regions of the brain that control memory lit up, and this activation drowned out the area that reacts simply to taste cues. In this case, Coke’s strong brand identity trumped the sensations coming from respondents’ taste receptors.

In another study, researchers reported that pictures of celebrities triggered many of the same brain circuits as images of shoes, cars, chairs, wristwatches, sunglasses, handbags, and water bottles. All of these objects set off a rush of activity in a part of the cortex that neuroscientists know links to a sense of identity and social image. The scientists also identified types of consumers based on their responses. At one extreme were people whose brains responded intensely to “cool” products and celebrities with bursts of activity but who didn’t respond at all to “uncool” images. They dubbed these participants “cool fools,” likely to be impulsive or compulsive shoppers. At the other extreme were people whose brains reacted only to the unstylish items, a pattern that fits well with people who tend to be anxious, apprehensive, or neurotic.

Many researchers remain skeptical about how helpful this technology will be for consumer research. If indeed researchers can reliably track consumers’ brand preferences by seeing how their brains react, there may be many interesting potential opportunities for new research techniques that rely on what we (at least our brains) do rather than on what we say.