Value Measurement vs. fMRI

fMRI is the most predictive method in consumer neuroscience, and we'll say that plainly: when six methods were benchmarked against real advertising outcomes, fMRI was the only one that added predictive value over a standard survey. It is also the least usable — it requires a fixed scanner, a motionless participant, a specialist team, and weeks of analysis. You cannot run it at an event, in a store, or on a couch.

What is fMRI?

fMRI is a technique used often in neuroscience, but less popular in neuromarketing. An fMRI is a scan that uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to create a 3D image of brain activity. To conduct an fMRI study, a participant lies on a bed that is retracted into a large metal tube where an algorithm is used to measure changes in the brain's magnetic field. fMRI is commonly used in academic research, but in neuromarketing, it's not as common as it is very costly, slow and complicated.

fMRI is an effective way to identify the locations of small changes in brain activity. However, it is thought to have poor reliability and is subject to over-interpretation because of the large amount of data collected. fMRI is not optimized to predict behavior but is focused on identifying the most active areas in the brain during a certain task.

Since MRI machines are very bulky and exceptionally expensive to maintain3, measurement can only be conducted in a laboratory setting by individuals who have been extensively trained in the technology and in working with the data. Researchers can typically only collect data from one individual at a time, and some people report feeling claustrophobic while inside the MRI tube.

As a result of these complexities, it typically takes months to execute and get insights from a project employing this methodology. Additionally, fMRI lacks in the extreme ecological validity so it is very difficult to cheaply and easily scale to wide audiences.

3 Vul, E., Harris, C., Winkielman, P., & Pashler, H. (2009). Voodoo correlations in social neuroscience. Perspectives on psychological Science, 4(3), 274-290.

What is fMRI genuinely good at?

fMRI is widely recognized in neuroscience and considered a fairly reliable measure of neural activity.

fMRI scans offer images with more detail than other diagnostic imaging techniques.

Where does fMRI fall short for measuring experiences?

fMRI requires access to costly equipment, lab time, and trained professionals to measure and interpret the data.

fMRI requires that study participants are in the lab in an enclosed metal tube, which detracts from the experience, and many individuals report feelings of claustrophobia, meaning their reactions are likely unnatural. 

fMRI data takes months to process and requires professionals to interpret data to identify actionable insights, if any. 

Since you can only measure one individual at a time, fMRI measurements are not easily scaled to wide audiences.

Reliability at the individual level is weak. A meta-analysis of 90 experiments (N = 1,008) found common task-fMRI measures average an intraclass correlation of .397, with the authors concluding they are "not currently suitable for brain biomarker discovery or for individual-differences research."

The same data can produce different answers. When 70 independent teams analyzed one fMRI dataset against nine pre-specified hypotheses, no two teams chose the same workflow, and on average one team in five reached a conclusion that differed from the majority.

Analytic flexibility is high. The same dataset can yield different results depending on processing choices — a problem that compounds when findings are used commercially rather than replicated.

None of this makes fMRI useless — it remains the reference method for localizing neural activity, and the field's own methodologists are the ones raising these issues. It does mean that a single fMRI study, at the sample sizes commercial work can afford, is a weaker piece of evidence than its precision suggests.

How Value Measurement is Different

Value Measurement does not require large equipment to scan the brain. It is scalable to huge audiences simultaneously and allows the capture of natural reactions in natural environments, using the smartwatches people already own. 

Value Measurement measures the impact of any experience by detecting subtle heart rhythm changes that signal the brain is getting value and releasing key neurochemicals significant to future recall and action. As a result, you have insight into what connected most, and what fell short for your audience. 

Dinner party fact for brain nerds

An fMRI scan uses a very large magnet to cause the electrons in brain cells to spin in the same direction. A radio frequency pulse then changes the direction of spin temporarily and the return to the axis of the magnet varies for oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood.

(Isn't science WILD?)

Is fMRI a Value Measurement?

Not in any practical sense. fMRI's predictive result is real and it's narrow. In one benchmark of 26 television ads, it was the only lab method to add predictive power beyond a standard survey. It took a scanner, ~29 participants, and months. It has never been shown to work outside one.

Value Measurement makes the opposite trade. It doesn't claim fMRI's spatial precision. It claims something fMRI structurally cannot: a reading of the same downstream neurochemical signature from a wristband, in the room, in real time, across thousands of people at once — validated in peer-reviewed work on donation behavior, purchase behavior, viewing time and mood, and independently assessed as a measurement instrument by third-party researchers.

Core Value Measurement Features

Core Value Measurement Features

Core Value Measurement Features

fMRI

fMRI

fMRI

Value

Value

Value

NEUROLOGIC

NEUROLOGIC

OUTCOME-BASED

OUTCOME-BASED

IN THE MOMENT

IN THE MOMENT

EVERYWHERE

EVERYWHERE

COMPARABLE

COMPARABLE

MULTIDIMENSIONAL

MULTIDIMENSIONAL

Other Factors

Other Factors

Other Factors

fMRI

fMRI

fMRI

Value

Value

Value

NO OBSERVATION EFFECT

NO OBSERVATION EFFECT

NO CUSTOM HARDWARE

NO CUSTOM HARDWARE

SCALABLE

SCALABLE

NO SPECIAL TRAINING REQUIRED

NO SPECIAL TRAINING REQUIRED

Feels like magic, because it is good science

Using everyday wearable devices, we can infer the simultaneous release of oxytocin and dopamine throughout the day. 

Real-time measure

World anywhere with the devices people already wear.

Proven in science

25 years of peer-reviewed science back up our confidence

Learn more

Join the Value Measurement Movement

What are you waiting for?  Value Measurement lets you identify what people authentically care about and will act on, moment-by-moment, removing all bias from the equation.  Download our Value Measurement Manifesto and join the movement today!