Patrizia Cherubino

Neuroelectrical Indexes for the Study of the Efficacy of TV Advertising Stimuli

In this chapter, we present the findings of an experiment aimed to investigate cognitive and emotional changes of cerebral activity during the observation of TV commercials. In particular, we recorded the electroencephalographic (EEG), galvanic skin response (GSR) and heart rate (HR) from a group of 24 healthy subjects during the observation of a series of TV advertisements. The group was equally divided also by gender (male, female) and age (young, old). Comparisons of cerebral and emotional indices previously defined have been performed to highlight gender differences between TV commercial and scenes of interest of specific commercials. Findings show how EEG methodologies, along with the measurements of autonomic variables, could be used to obtain information not obtainable otherwise with verbal interviews. These cerebral and emotional indexes could help to analyze the perception of TV advertisements according to the consumer’s gender and age.

Neuroelectric brain imaging during a real visit of a fine arts gallery: a neuroaesthetic study of XVII century Dutch painters

Neuroaesthetic is a scientific discipline founded more than a decade ago and it refers to the study of the neural bases of beauty perception in art. The aim of this paper is to investigate the neuroelectrical correlates of brain activity of the observation of real paintings showed in a national fine arts gallery (Scuderie del Quirinale) in Rome, Italy. In fact, the present study was designed to examine how motivational factors as indexed by EEG asymmetry over the prefrontal cortex (relative activity of the left and right hemispheres) could be related to the experience of viewing a series of figurative paintings. The fine arts gallery was visited by a group of 25 subjects during an exhibition of the XVII century Dutch painters. Results suggested a strict correlation of the estimated EEG asymmetry with the verbal pleasantness scores reported by the subjects (p<;0,05) and an inverse correlation of the perceived pleasantness with the observed paintings surface dimensions (d<;0,002).

Enhance of theta EEG spectral activity related to the memorization of commercial advertisings in Chinese and Italian subjects

Advertisings related to the fruition of carbonated beverages are intensively presented on the usual TV programs worldwide. Recent functional neuroimaging studies have begun to investigate how commercial brand information is processed in the brain. While the role of prefrontal cortices is then highlighted in the generation of appreciation for a brand, it is not really addressed the issue how this appreciation is spread across different cultural models, i.e. across different Western and Oriental people. In this study we investigated the cerebral activity during the fruition of similar advertising related to very popular carbonated beverages (Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola) in group of Western and Oriental people, homogeneous for age. We used such EEG technologies since it is now known that it is possible to investigate the activation of prefrontal cortex also by using advanced EEG processing techniques. By comparing the theta spectral activity of the population who remembered the TV commercial against the one who forgotten it, results present an increase of EEG activity related to frame segments showing the product advertised and its brand. These findings, focused on the prefrontal cortex and obtained with EEG measurements, suggest that this kind of technology is able to track variation of the cerebral activity related to cognitive function, such as memorization, across TV commercials. Moreover, there is the possibility to investigate frame segments of particular interest for marketers and, on the other hand, to identify part of the videoclip that are not particularly attractive.

A Neuroaesthetic Study of the Cerebral Perception and Appreciation of Paintings by Titian Using EEG and Eyetracker Measurements

The neuroelectrical and the eye-movements activities were collected in a group of 27 healthy subjects during their visit of a fine arts gallery displaying twenty paintings of Titian. Evaluation of the appreciation of the paintings was performed by using the neuroelectrical approach-withdrawal index (AW). AW index was estimated for two groups of ten paintings of Titian: one group was related to religious matter while the second was related to portraits. In addition, it was compared the population AW indexes estimated in the first 10 seconds of the observation across all the selected paintings with the AW index estimated in the last 40 seconds of the observation. The number and the total duration (in seconds) spent on the eye fixations performed by the subjects during the observation of the paintings was also analyzed.

Transparency and Reliability in Neuromarketing Research

In this chapter, we discuss about the transparency and reliability issues in the practice of the application of neuroscience-based methodologies on relevant marketing stimuli (e.g., neuromarketing). It is hypothesized that one of the reasons of the misperception and overestimation by the public opinion and mass media of the actual capabilities of the neuromarketing to inform marketing researcher is due to the lack of the transparency about the methodologies employed by the neuromarketing companies. In fact, different companies offer services that are based on proprietary computational methods and approaches that are not fully validated or disclosed through scientific publications to the scientific community. This opacity in the methodologies employed by some companies makes it difficult for the scientists to separate supported and unsupported claims of validity of the services offered by those companies. Such confusion is reflected in an often misplaced communication toward the public opinion and the final users of these methodologies about the effective capability of such approach to capture the generation of the decision making of the persons in front of marketing stimuli.

The first impression is what matters: a neuroaesthetic study of the cerebral perception and appreciation of paintings by Titian.

In this paper we measured the neuroelectrical and the eye-movements activities in a group of 27 healthy subjects during their visit of a fine arts gallery in which a series of masterpieces of the Italian painter Tiziano Vecellio (also known as Titian, 1488-1576) were shown. The pictures chosen for the visit were 10 portraits and 10 of religious subjects. Each picture was observed for a minute. A mobile EEG device with an eye-tracker was used for this experiment. Evaluation of the appreciation of the pictures was performed by using the neuroelectrical approach-withdrawal index (AW). High value of AW means high appreciation of the picture. The number of eye fixations performed by the subjects during the observation of the pictures was also analyzed. Results showed that in the examined group the AW index was significant higher during the observation of portraits than during the observation of the religious subjects (as resulted from an ANOVA performed on AW index, with a p<;0,007). Interestingly, the average AW index estimated in the first 20 seconds of the observation of the pictures remains highly correlated with the AW index evaluated for the second part of the data (from 20 s to one minute) for all the 20 pictures examined (r = 0,82, p<;0,0001). In addition, the number of eye fixations performed by the subjects in the first 5 or 10 seconds of observation of the pictures that were most appreciated are significantly higher than the number of eye fixations performed on pictures that subjects did not like (p<;0,048 and p<;0,0018, respectively). Such difference vanishes if the entire period of observation of the pictures of one minute is used (p = 0,54). Taken together, such results seem to suggest that the neuroelectrical correlates of the perception of “good” or “bad” pictures are rapidly formed in our brain, within the first 10-20 seconds from the exposition to the picture.

Methodology of a Typical “Neuromarketing” Experiment

The present Chapter illustrates the scenario of a series of neuromarketing experiments we performed in the last years to investigate the EEG cerebral activations correlated with memorization, attention and emotional processing of individuals while watching TV commercials. A large space to the basics knowledge of the high resolution EEG technology is provided. Specifically, we show how it is possible to enhance the spatial resolution of the EEG by solving the related linear inverse problem in order to obtain an estimation of the cortical sources. In addition, the theory we used to perform the spectral statistical analysis is also presented along with a direct example on fake data.

Application to Real Cases

In this chapter, an example of the practical application of the previously discussed neuroelectrical imaging indexes is provided for the evaluation of a commercial advertisement before its TV launch on air. The aim is to describe which kind of additional information the analysis of cerebral signal could bring to the industry in this area of research.

Neurophysiological measures of the perception of antismoking public service announcements among young population

Tobacco constitutes a global emergency with totally preventable millions of deaths per year and smoking-related illnesses. Public service announcements (PSAs) are the main tool against smoking and by now their efficacy is still assessed through questionnaires and metrics, only months after their circulation. The present study focused on the young population, because at higher risk of developing tobacco addiction, investigating the reaction to the vision of Effective, Ineffective and Awarded antismoking PSAs through: electroencephalography (EEG), autonomic activity variation (Galvanic skin response—GSR- and Heart Rate—HR-) and Eye-Tracking (ET). The employed indices were: the EEG frontal alpha band asymmetry and the frontal theta; the Emotional Index (EI), deriving from the GSR and HR signals matching; the ET Visual Attention (VA) index, based on the ratio between the total time spent fixating an area of interest (AOI) and its area. Smokers expressed higher frontal alpha asymmetry values in comparison to non-smokers. Concerning frontal theta, Awarded PSAs reported the highest values in comparison to both Effective and Ineffective PSAs. EI results highlighted that lowest values were expressed by Heavy Smokers (HS), and Effective PSAs obtained the highest EI values. Finally, concerning the Effective PSAs, regression analysis highlighted a correlation between the number of cigarettes smoked by participants (independent variable) and frontal alpha asymmetry, frontal theta and EI values. ET results suggested that for the Ineffective PSAs the main focus were texts, while for the Effective and Awarded PSAs were the visual elements. Results support the use of methods aimed at assessing the physiological reaction for the evaluation of PSAs images, in particular when considering the smoking habits of target populations.

Neurophysiological Responses to Different Product Experiences

It is well known that the evaluation of a product from the shelf considers the simultaneous cerebral and emotional evaluation of the different qualities of the product such as its colour, the eventual images shown, and the envelopes texture (hereafter all included in the term “product experience”). However, the measurement of cerebral and emotional reactions during the interaction with food products has not been investigated in depth in specialized literature. The aim of this paper was to investigate such reactions by the EEG and the autonomic activities, as elicited by the cross-sensory interaction (sight and touch) across several different products. In addition, we investigated whether (i) the brand (Major Brand or Private Label), (ii) the familiarity (Foreign or Local Brand), and (iii) the hedonic value of products (Comfort Food or Daily Food) influenced the reaction of a group of volunteers during their interaction with the products. Results showed statistically significantly higher tendency of cerebral approach (as indexed by EEG frontal alpha asymmetry) in response to comfort food during the visual exploration and the visual and tactile exploration phases. Furthermore, for the same index, a higher tendency of approach has been found toward foreign food products in comparison with local food products during the visual and tactile exploration phase. Finally, the same comparison performed on a different index (EEG frontal theta) showed higher mental effort during the interaction with foreign products during the visual exploration and the visual and tactile exploration phases. Results from the present study could deepen the knowledge on the neurophysiological response to food products characterized by different nature in terms of hedonic value familiarity; moreover, they could have implications for food marketers and finally lead to further study on how people make food choices through the interactions with their commercial envelope.