Neuroscience has a surprise for marketers: the way we are neurologically wired can actually prevent us from accurately reporting what we really think and remember, when asked.

Writing in the January issue of Nielsen's "Consumer Insight" online newsletter, Palak Patel of NeuroFocus Inc., explains that the real truth lies beyond the reach of typical consumer research methods, like surveys and focus groups -- in the subconscious mind.

According to Patel, answers are essentially corrupted information -- biased by the conscious mind, which is influenced by everything from what language you speak to what your grandmother told you as a child.  Only by monitoring actual brainwaves, can marketers gain access to the deep subconscious mind, where brand identity and purchase decisions are formed.

"When you are asked a question about how you think about something, or what you feel, or what you remember, in the course of formulating your answer your brain actually changes the original data it received," Patel writes.  "Since information gathered with other conventional forms of market research... is collected at this stage, the answers are filtered through too many mental mechanisms to produce the level of pure, precise information that neurological testing does."

Read the full article.

View the latest issue of "Consumer Insight."