title: EEG analysis of the brain activity during the observation of commercial, political, or public service announcements.
abstract: The use of modern brain imaging techniques could be useful to understand what brain areas are involved in the observation of video clips related to commercial advertising, as well as for the support of political campaigns, and also the areas of Public Service Announcements (PSAs). In this paper we describe the capability of tracking brain activity during the observation of commercials, political spots, and PSAs with advanced high-resolution EEG statistical techniques in time and frequency domains in a group of normal subjects. We analyzed the statistically significant cortical spectral power activity in different frequency bands during the observation of a commercial video clip related to the use of a beer in a group of 13 normal subjects. In addition, a TV speech of the Prime Minister of Italy was analyzed in two groups of swing and "supporter" voters. Results suggested that the cortical activity during the observation of commercial spots could vary consistently across the spot. This fact suggest the possibility to remove the parts of the spot that are not particularly attractive by using those cerebral indexes. The cortical activity during the observation of the political speech indicated a major cortical activity in the supporters group when compared to the swing voters. In this case, it is possible to conclude that the communication proposed has failed to raise attention or interest on swing voters. In conclusions, high-resolution EEG statistical techniques have been proved to able to generate useful insights about the particular fruition of TV messages, related to both commercial as well as political fields.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Rome Sapienza, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vecchiato
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Astolfi
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tabarrini
authors.forename: Serenella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salinari
authors.forename: Donatella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mattia
authors.forename: Febo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cincotti
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bianchi
authors.forename: Domenica
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sorrentino
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aloise
authors.forename: Ramon
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Soranzo
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Babiloni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000329:Advertising; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D001515:Beer; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003142:Communication; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D011057:Politics; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D013690:Television; D014741:Video Recording; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology