Where the Brain Makes Decisions: ... Using a revolutionary method of imaging the brain, researchers from the Open University (OU) and the London Business School say they have identified the brain region that becomes active as the shopper reaches to the supermarket shelf to make their final choice.

You know ... I just suddenly had this vision of the future. And it was dark and distressing.

The future looks something like this: The researchers will continue to explore and do their thing, and shortly, they'll discover the exact frequency or bandwidth of the portion of the brain that becomes active during decision making. (Given the way they imaged the information, they may even already know!) You know those little things in the market that flash and spit coupons at you as you walk by? They'll put little teeny broadcasting things inside. As you walk past, it'll beam, "Buy me!" directly into your brain, for whatever is on that shelf. And you'll get to the checkout counter, and discover that you've got hundreds of dollars worth of stuff that you never meant to buy, just because your decision-making switch was tripped for you. Oh, sure, the manufacturers and store owners will say that they'd never do any such thing, that it would be unethical. But we know better, don't we .....

Don't sweat it. You'll be able to block the brain-control beams by lining your hat with aluminum foil...