RHUMBO: modelling and pRedicting Human decision-making Using Measures of subconscious Brain processes through mixed reality interfaces and biOmetric signals

RHUMBO proposes using measures of subconscious brain processes through the use of mixed reality technologies (MRT) and advanced biometric signals processing as a new paradigm to improve the knowledge that implicit brain processes have in human decision-making .

Technology is changing the context and practice of businesses: companies are increasingly forced to operate in a changing world where they do not have any more the full control of the media and the message. Consumer behaviour is also changing: it is losing trust and becomes much more critical, smart, well informed and proactive than ever before. While technological advances have already reshaped most businesses, many companies are still making strategic decisions relying upon questionnaires, focus groups, card swipes, or GPS tracking.

In 2017, the Nobel Prize in economics, Prof Richard H. Thaler, incorporated psychologically realistic assumptions into the analyses of economic decision-making, showing how human traits systematically affect individual decisions as well as market outcomes. Recent breakthroughs in neuroscience are helping to understand how this decision-making process takes place and what people are thinking, paying attention to, and being motivated by.

RHUMBO will take advantage of this ground to focus on the study of the neurobiological basis of decision-making and its application to the corporate world. It will help to gain insight into the behavioural aspects which are determined by unconscious perceptions and relevant to decision-making, focusing in particular in the development of consumer behaviour applications, as only the global neuromarketing solutions market was valued at US$0.94 billion in 2016 and is forecast to reach US$2.20 billion by the end of 2025.

With this growth expectations and the technological revolution in place, new knowledge, new skills and new approaches are required not only to understand the changing environment but also for comprehending and communicating with consumers. The need for a new generation of researchers is growing and consequently also for institutions that will be able to set the future neuro-business research and educational agenda. RHUMBO takes up this challenge and targets to deliver an innovative multinational, multi-sectorial, and multidisciplinary research and training programme in cognitive neuroscience, transparently immersive experiences and artificial intelligence with a focus on neuro-business. To achieve it, RHUMBO aggregates relevant scientific staff from the academic and corporate worlds that will guarantee RHUMBO’s ESRs and future PhD students following the same tracks outstanding Career Opportunities in the consumer behaviour sector and beyond.

RHUMBO proposes using measures of subconscious brain processes through the use of mixed reality technologies (MRT) and advanced biometric signals processing as a new paradigm to improve the knowledge that implicit brain processes have in human decision-making .

VISION

RHUMBO will produce a set of tools and models to predict human decision-making in business environments.

OBJECTIVES

RHUMBO aims to create an innovative multinational, multi-sectorial, and multidisciplinary excellence doctoral training network programme to produce 11 ESRs in cognitive neuroscience, transparently immersive experiences and artificial intelligence with a focus on neuro-business. Specific application in consumer behaviour has been selected to test the novel models and measurements developed by the project.

• Scientific: The main scientific goal of RHUMBO is to use mixed reality technologies (MRT) together with different biometric signals, supported by artificial intelligence processing techniques to examine consumer behavioural patterns during dynamic, complex and realistic situations for a deeper understanding of internal human psychological states.
• Training: to provide a high-level personalised multidisciplinary training program both in technical including enrolment in a PhD. and transferable skills (such as entrepreneurship, project management, ethical issues, IPR, open access) with the long term aim to produce scientific leadership – foundation for ERC starting grants and/or industry leadership – Industry Fellow.
• Dissemination and outreach: disseminate the neuroscience-based business methods and tools developed by the project to a wide spectrum of stakeholders ranging from the scientific community to corporate users; create awareness in the general public about neuroscience and the fundamental role that it has in our daily decisions; to encourage neuroscience vocational careers among young students, with special emphasis on women.