Richard Huskey

Neural Predictors of Message Effectiveness during Counterarguing in Antidrug Campaigns

A substantial amount of research has focused on predicting the effectiveness of persuasive messages. However, characteristics of both the message itself and its receiver can impact theoretically predicted effects. For example, recent work published in this journal demonstrated that issue involvement modulates the relationship between message sensation value (MSV) and argument strength (AS). When exposed to anti-cannabis public service announcements (PSAs), high-drug-risk individuals rate these messages as having low effectiveness regardless of variation in MSV and AS. Accordingly, for high-risk individuals, MSV and AS lose their predictive power in message design; moreover, the all too common use of high MSV, high AS PSAs to dissuade drug use may be ineffective, as high-risk viewers are more likely to engage in counterarguing. In this paper, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural correlates of counterarguing. Subsequently, we employ a brain-as-predictor approach using neural activation and self-report data to predict message effectiveness in two independent samples. We demonstrate that by adding two neural predictors within the middle frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus to self-report data, the prediction accuracy of message effectiveness in high-drug-risk individuals during counterarguing can reach, and even surpass, the prediction accuracy for low-drug-risk individuals.

Brain Imaging in Communication Research: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Evaluating fMRI Studies

Core communication research questions are increasingly being investigated using brain imaging techniques. A majority of these studies apply a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) approach. This trend raises two important questions that we address in this article. First, under what conditions can fMRI methodology increase knowledge and refine communication theory? Second, how can editors, reviewers, and readers of communication journals discriminate sound and relevant fMRI research from unsound or irrelevant fMRI research? To address these questions, we first discuss what can and cannot be accomplished with fMRI. Subsequently, we provide a pragmatic introduction to fMRI data collection and analysis for social-science-oriented communication scholars. We include practical guidelines and a checklist for reporting and evaluating fMRI studies.

Bridging media psychology and cognitive neuroscience: Challenges and opportunities.

Abstract. Media neuroscience has emerged as a new area of study at the intersection of media psychology and cognitive neuroscience. In previous work, we have addressed this trend from a methodological perspective. In this paper, we outline the progression of scholarship in systematic investigations of mass communication phenomena over the past century, from behaviorism and environmental determinism to biological and evolutionary paradigms. These new paradigms are grounded in an emergentist perspective on the nature of psychological processes. We discuss what it means to ask valid research questions in media neuroscience studies and provide recent examples in the areas of interpersonal and intergroup processes, morality, and narratives as well as in persuasion and health communication. We conclude with a selection of innovative methodological avenues that have the potential to accelerate the integration of cognitive neuroscience into media psychology research.

Does intrinsic reward motivate cognitive control? a naturalistic-fMRI study based on the synchronization theory of flow

Cognitive control is a framework for understanding the neuropsychological processes that underlie the successful completion of everyday tasks. Only recently has research in this area investigated motivational contributions to control allocation. An important gap in our understanding is the way in which intrinsic rewards associated with a task motivate the sustained allocation of control. To address this issue, we draw on flow theory, which predicts that a balance between task difficulty and individual ability results in the highest levels of intrinsic reward. In three behavioral and one functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, we used a naturalistic and open-source video game stimulus to show that changes in the balance between task difficulty and an individual’s ability to perform the task resulted in different levels of intrinsic reward, which is associated with different brain states. Specifically, psychophysiological interaction analyses show that high levels of intrinsic reward associated with a balance between task difficulty and individual ability are associated with increased functional connectivity between key structures within cognitive control and reward networks. By comparison, a mismatch between task difficulty and individual ability is associated with lower levels of intrinsic reward and corresponds to increased activity within the default mode network. These results suggest that intrinsic reward motivates cognitive control allocation.

The persuasion network is modulated by drug-use risk and predicts anti-drug message effectiveness

Abstract While a persuasion network has been proposed, little is known about how network connections between brain regions contribute to attitude change. Two possible mechanisms have been advanced. One hypothesis predicts that attitude change results from increased connectivity between structures implicated in affective and executive processing in response to increases in argument strength. A second functional perspective suggests that highly arousing messages reduce connectivity between structures implicated in the encoding of sensory information, which disrupts message processing and thereby inhibits attitude change. However, persuasion is a multi-determined construct that results from both message features and audience characteristics. Therefore, persuasive messages should lead to specific functional connectivity patterns among a priori defined structures within the persuasion network. The present study exposed 28 subjects to anti-drug public service announcements where arousal, argument strength, and subject drug-use risk were systematically varied. Psychophysiological interaction analyses provide support for the affective-executive hypothesis but not for the encoding-disruption hypothesis. Secondary analyses show that video-level connectivity patterns among structures within the persuasion network predict audience responses in independent samples (one college-aged, one nationally representative). We propose that persuasion neuroscience research is best advanced by considering network-level effects while accounting for interactions between message features and target audience characteristics.

Beyond Blobology: Using Psychophysiological Interaction Analyses to Investigate the Neural Basis of Human Communication Phenomena

Huskey shows how rapid advances in brain-imaging technologies have allowed for the systematic investigation of the mind/brain and researchers are increasingly utilizing these methods to examine the neural basis of human communication behavior. The chapter introduces communication scholars interested in conducting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigations to psychophysiological interaction analyses (PPI). Huskey discusses the methodological particulars associated with using a PPI analysis to test the synchronization theory of flow before concluding with a broader outlook on applications to communication theory and research. Specifically, the chapter discusses how investigations of neural connectivity can be used for theoretical falsification, conceptual refinement, and distinguishing constructs that have similar phenomenological characteristics and behavioral outcomes.

Network Dynamics of Attention During a Naturalistic Behavioral Paradigm

This study investigates the dynamics of attention during continuous, naturalistic interactions in a video game. Specifically, the effect of repeated distraction on a continuous primary task is related to a functional model of network connectivity. We introduce the Non-linear Attentional Saturation Hypothesis (NASH), which predicts that effective connectivity within attentional networks increases non-linearly with decreasing distraction over time, and exhibits dampening at critical parameter values. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected using a naturalistic behavioral paradigm coupled with an interactive video game is used to test the hypothesis. As predicted, connectivity in pre-defined regions corresponding to attentional networks increases as distraction decreases. Moreover, the functional relationship between connectivity and distraction is convex, that is, network connectivity somewhat increases as distraction decreases during the continuous primary task, however, connectivity increases considerably as distraction falls below critical levels. This result characterizes the non-linear pattern of connectivity within attentional networks, particularly with respect to their dynamics during behavior. These results are also summarized in the form of a network structure analysis, which underscores the role of various nodes in regulating the global network state. In conclusion, we situate the implications of this research in the context of cognitive complexity and an emerging theory of flow during media exposure.

Creative Interactivity: Customizing and Creating Game Content

This chapter conceptualizes the customization and creation of game content as a particularly creative dimension of video game interactivity. It describes how game customization and co-creation of video game content contribute to entertainment experiences.

Things we know about media and morality

To the Editor — Crockett’s Comment ‘Moral outrage in the digital age’1 explains how social media affect responses to moral violations and the consequences thereof: social media increase the frequency of exposure to moral violations, alter the cost and constraints of experiencing them, and promote feuding responses. We applaud Crockett for addressing this pressing topic. However, a significant body of communication science research suggests important ways in which Crockett’s model and hypotheses could be enriched and refined. First, Crockett argues that individuals show moral outrage when exposed to moral content in social media contexts and that this outrage is consistent with an individual’s moral subculture. Crockett primarily accounts for volume and platform of exposure while underspecifying content as emotional, immoral or otherwise triggering stimuli. Volume is a reasonable start. However, existing models show that moral beliefs shape media exposure, and that these beliefs are influenced as a result. Moral subcultures emerge in response to media use2 and the moral profiles of these subcultures shape the evaluation of moral actions3. Importantly, moral messages differ in systematic ways4 and vary by source5. Therefore, research should address how variations in media content interact with individuals’ moral profiles to shape exposure6 and subsequent behavioural outcomes7. Given that volume can be considered an outcome of variation in moral content, Crockett’s model would benefit from specifying message, source and receiver characteristics that explain intensity of and variation in moral emotions. Second, Crockett’s argument assumes that social media constitute echo chambers and that exposure to moral content in social media contributes to polarization. Empirical support for these assumptions is mixed. Moral content on social media platforms are part of broader media contexts that jointly contribute to moral evaluations and behaviour. In traditional and new media contexts, audience fragmentation is lesser than audience duplication and this finding is true across multiple nations and platforms8. If social media significantly contribute to polarization, then the most polarized audiences should use social media the most. Nationally representative data show the opposite pattern9. Accordingly, Crockett’s hypothesis that echo chambers associated with social media limit the costs and benefits of moral outrage requires further empirical scrutiny. Finally, Crockett argues that exposure to moral content evokes stronger moral outrage in social media compared with in person. This is supported by preliminary evidence for a small effect size in a large sample1. However, the hypothesis that social media exacerbate moral outrage in kind and ferocity over other channels requires additional evidence. Illuminating questions might consider the properties of social media in addition to volume and ease of transmission with a focus on the written nature of online communication that intensifies the emotional impact of messages. Despite the prevalence of graphics in social media, commenting is still predominantly textual, and therefore exceptionally provocative10. If we agreed that evidence for echo chambers is inconclusive and social media may not limit the benefits of moral outrage, then other factors such as intensified self-perceptions and commitment to public positions due to postings are indeed aspects worth considering in more detail. Ultimately, if social media affect moral outrage at the individual and societal level, then cross-disciplinary collaborations to model morality, media and their mechanisms will help us better understand these phenomena. ❐

Network Neuroscience Reveals Distinct Neuromarkers of Flow During Media Use

Flow is characterized by a high level of intrinsic reward that results from a balance between task difficulty and individual ability. The Synchronization Theory of Flow offers an explanation for the neural basis of this process. It predicts an energetically-optimized, brainnetwork organization between cognitive control and reward regions when task difficulty and individual ability are balanced. While initial results provide support for structural predictions, the many-to-many connectivity and energetic optimality hypotheses remain untested. Our study addresses this gap. Subjects played a video game while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. We experimentally manipulated task difficulty and individual ability. Using graph theoretical analyses, we show that the balanced-difficulty condition (compared to lowor high-difficulty) was associated with the highest average network degree in the fronto-parietal control network (implicated in cognitive control) and had the lowest global efficiency value, indicating low metabolic cost, and thereby testing Synchronization Theory’s core predictions.