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December 31, 2014 Two Steps Forward, One Backward in Using fMRI to Predict Product Popularity In a study that lasted several years, low responses to unfamiliar songs in two areas of adolescent listeners' brains (the orbitofrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens) were moderately accurate in predicting those songs' later failure to achieve commercial success, according to an analysis of functional MRI data by Gregory S. Berns and Sara E. Moore of Emory University. Although the researchers didn't find a way to predict hits based on the fMRI results, the low levels of brain activity correctly predicted 80% of the non-hits in a selection of 87 new songs released on MySpace. Unfortunately, the method also incorrectly predicted failure for songs that did eventually become hits, the researchers say. SOURCE: A neural predictor of cultural popularity

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