title: Covert brand recognition engages emotion-specific brain networks.
abstract: Consumer goods' brands have become a major driver of consumers' choice: they have got symbolic, relational and even social properties that add substantial cultural and affective value to goods and services. Therefore, measuring the role of brands in consumers' cognitive and affective processes would be very helpful to better understand economic decision making. This work aimed at finding the neural correlates of automatic, spontaneous emotional response to brands, showing how deeply integrated are consumption symbols within the cognitive and affective processes of individuals. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was measured during a visual oddball paradigm consisting in the presentation of scrambled pictures as frequent stimuli, colored squares as targets, and brands and emotional pictures (selected from the International Affective Picture System [IAPS]) as emotionally-salient distractors. Affective rating of brands was assessed individually after scanning by a validated questionnaire. Results showed that, similarly to IAPS pictures, brands activated a well-defined emotional network, including amygdala and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, highly specific of affective valence. In conclusion, this work identified the neural correlates of brands within cognitive and affective processes of consumers.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Surgery, Medical, Molecular, and Critical Area Pathology, University of Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Casarotto
authors.forename: Emiliano
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ricciardi
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Romani
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dalli
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pietrini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen