Metaverso y neuromarketing: innovación metodológica en el estudio del consumidor y del retail

Neurotechnologies lead to the study of the nervous system and to improve its function. They are supposed to become one of the great technological leaps of our days. Traditionally they have been used in the field of health, however, their universalization, by operability and cost, has promoted their use in different areas within the social sciences through the discipline called neuromarketing or consumer neuroscience to apply it in market research. The appearance of metaverse could incorporate new formulas for the study of individuals and audiences due to the wide range of neurophysiological recording sensors (eye tracking, EEG, EDA ...) incorporated in the hardware of virtual reality and augmented reality. This paper focuses on the potential of the technologies in the context of metaverse for market research and the creation of innovative metrics of interest for business, communicational, advertising and educational fields. To portray this situation, a literature review, a documentary analysis and interviews with experts in cognitive neuroscience, artificial intelligence (AI) and neuroarchitecture are carried out. Although the results demonstrate the existence of neurophysiological sensors in metaverse devices and the possibility of conducting neurophysiological research in real consumer environments, technological obstacles and basic scientific knowledge must be overcome.