Bangor University’s Centre for Experimental Consumer Psychology recently published the results of their MRI study of brains to compare and contrast the differences in brain activity when the subjects were presented with physical direct mail and virtual online marketing.

The researchers concluded that larger areas of the brain, and different parts of the brain, are stimulated by physical advertisements than by virtual or digital advertising. They also noted that the emotional centers of the brain are much more stimulated by paper-based ads and those areas stimulated are the ones that are connected to internal feelings causing a greater personal connection to the material, the marketing and, by extension, the message.

Online advertising and digital formats don’t stimulate the section of the brain related to emotional processing and motor activity, but handling the tactile-stimulating paper ads does.