Coke or Pepsi? It's in the brain

HARTFORD COURANT
Scientists say they can tell a Coke drinker from a Pepsi aficionado by reviewing brain scans.
When told what they are drinking, three of four people surveyed say they prefer Coke, according to research published in the current issue of the journal Neuron.
When scientists did not tell the 67 people who participated in the study whether they were drinking Coke or Pepsi, the subjects showed no preference for either drink.
Scientists said both drinks are essentially sugar and water, which makes the classic taste test between the two giants of the soft drink industry a great way to look at the effect of cultural messages on brain activity.
The imaging studies noted changes in activity in several areas of the brain during testing, particularly in the ventral putamen, which is involved in reward-related learning and forming positive associations with eating and drinking, say researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine.
Subjects who knew they were drinking a Coke showed increased brain activity, but similar activity was not seen when subjects were drinking Pepsi.
Coke's advertisements have essentially "insinuated themselves into our nervous system," said Dr. Read Montague, director of the Brown Human Neuroimaging Lab at Baylor and author of the study. "We were stunned how easy this was. I could tell what [study subjects] were going to do by looking at their brain scans."