New #neuroforecasting research out in #PNASNexus : "Brain activity reveals how wildlife imagery evokes engagement on social media"!

Partnering with #NationalGeographic, we found that group brain activity in the Medial PreFrontal Cortex (MPFC) forecast image popularity on their social media feed (as did subjects' "like" ratings).

Further, correlated activity in #face processing (FFG) and #mentalizing (rTPJ) implied that socioemotional features might drive image popularity, verified by modeling the impact of these features on the popularity of out-of-sample images.

Thus, beyond forecasting, brain activity helped to clarify which image features drive popularity. Congratulations to steadfast coauthors Tara Srirangarajan , Nik Sawe , Cynthia Wu , and Tierney Thys and deep thanks to the #Stanford Woods Institute for continued support.

P.S. The news alert below illustrates our findings with the winning wildlife image, and links to the article:

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1116282

Using a mega-analysis of 16 fMRI studies with 572 participants and 739 persuasive messages, the article reports that activity in reward-related and mentalizing brain networks predicts both individual judgments of message effectiveness and population-level outcomes, suggesting a common neural currency for persuasion. Exploratory results also indicate roles for language and emotion processing, with limitations and calls for broader samples and standardized methods.

These findings illuminate how neural mechanisms of value evaluation and social understanding underlie persuasive messaging across contexts, bridging neuroscience and social psychology. They suggest that brain signals can forecast collective responses beyond self-reported attitudes, offering a cross-domain perspective on attitude change and behavior.

Article Title: Neuroimaging data reveals a “common currency” for effective communication

Link to PsyPost Article: ift dot tt/91Vxcau

Copy and paste broken link above into your browser and replace "dot" with "." for link to work. We have to do it this way to avoid displaying copyrighted images.

#Neuroimaging #Persuasion #Neuroforecasting #BrainNetworks #SocialCognition

New #neuroforecasting #megaanalysis suggests that effective messages recruit #reward and #mentalizing circuits -- in individuals and at scale!
Though there's much yet to learn, this collaboration (headed by Christin Scholz and Hang-Yee Chan, and guided by Emily Falk) offers encouraging support for the replicability of #neuroforecasting findings...

https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/4/11/pgaf287/8313348

Thanks and kudos to Nick Weiler for wrangling my enthusiastic ramblings into a coherent narrative that hopefully conveys my optimism about the past (first half) and future (second half) of #neuroforecasting (on #Stanford 's Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute award-winning podcast!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZnAJ3pbs4g

Now out in @[email protected] :
"#Neuroforecasting reveals generalizable components of choice" (link below)!

Led by the intrepid Alex Genevsky , we examined how deep brain activity (in the Nucleus Accumbens or #NAcc ) can forecast choices out of sample in much larger groups (e.g., in #crowdfunding and #videoviewing markets).

We found that while behavioral forecasts depended on demographic match, neural forecasts (from the NAcc) did not, potentially supporting inferences from smaller samples. So, beyond considering #representativeness of a sample, researchers might also benefit from considering representativeness of different choice components.

Thanks to the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute #Neurochoice Initiative for support, to the reviewers for constructive suggestions, and to #PNASNexus for a smooth publishing experience!

https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/4/2/pgaf029/8016018

#Neuroforecasting in the news : The erudite @jasonzweigwsj highlights recent evidence that brain activity can forecast stock returns even when behavior can't (gated) ...

https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/what-our-brains-know-about-stocksbut-wont-tell-us-880d5d72

_BRAIN$?_ is out!
Where I comment that while #neuroeconomics researchers have met historical goals of using brain activity to predict and even forecast choice, the goalposts may have shifted (#neuroforecasting)...

https://myscp.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcpy.1398