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Brainwaves can be remarkably strong predictor of responses from general population, according to a new study. 

The study analyzed the brainwaves of 16 individuals as they watched mainstream television content. In the meantime, researchers accurately predicted the preferences of large TV audiences in up to 90 percent in the case of Super Bowl commercials. 

"Alternative methods, such as self-reports are fraught with problems as people conform their responses to their own values and expectations," said Dr. Jacek Dmochowski, lead author of the paper and a postdoctoral fellow at City College during the research, in the press release. 

"Our findings show that these immediate responses are in fact closely tied to the subsequent behavior of the general population," he added.

Participants of the study watched scenes from "The Walking Dead" TV show and several commercials from the 2012 and 2013 Super Bowls. Electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes were placed on their heads that captured their brain activity. 

"Brain activity among our participants watching "The Walking Dead" predicted 40% of the associated Twitter traffic," Dr. Lucas Parra, Herbert Kayser Professor of Biomedical Engineering in CCNY's Grove School of Engineering and the paper's senior author, said in the press release. "When brainwaves were in agreement, the number of tweets tended to increase." Brainwaves also predicted 60% of the Nielsen Ratings that measure the size of a TV audience.

"Interesting ads may draw our attention and cause deeper sensory processing of the content," said Dr. Bezdek, a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia Tech's School of Psychology, in the press release. 

The findings of the study have been published in the journal Nature Communications.