Hilke Plassmann, John O'Doherty, Baba Shiv, and Antonio Rangel of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology asked 21 adult volunteers to sample identical bottles of wine presented at different prices and by using [functionalMRI] brain scans they monitored the neural activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex - the area of the brain associated with decision-making and pleasure in terms of flavour.

They found that [for] the more "expensive" wines ......the part of the brain responsible for pleasure showed significant activity .

The authors say it has been known for some time that people's perceptions are affected by marketing, but it can now be seen that the brain itself is affected by price.

 http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0706929105v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=rangel&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

 http://www.news-medical.net/?id=34284