title: The Influence of Televised Food Commercials on Children's Food Choices: Evidence from Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Activations.
abstract: To investigate how food commercials influence children's food choices.
  
  
  
  Twenty-three children ages 8-14 years provided taste and health ratings for 60 food items. Subsequently, these children were scanned with the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging while making food choices (ie, "eat" or "not eat") after watching food and nonfood television commercials.
  
  
  
  Our results show that watching food commercials changes the way children consider the importance of taste when making food choices. Children did not use health values for their food choices, indicating children's decisions were largely driven by hedonic, immediate rewards (ie, "tastiness"); however, children placed significantly more importance on taste after watching food commercials compared with nonfood commercials. This change was accompanied by faster decision times during food commercial trials. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a reward valuation brain region, showed increased activity during food choices after watching food commercials compared with after watching nonfood commercials.
  
  
  
  Overall, our results suggest watching food commercials before making food choices may bias children's decisions based solely on taste, and that food marketing may systematically alter the psychological and neurobiologic mechanisms of children's food decisions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS; Center for Children's Healthy Lifestyles and Nutrition, Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO. Electronic address: abruce@kumc.edu.
authors.forename: Amanda S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Bruce
authors.affiliation: Department of Finance, Henry W. Bloch School of Management, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO.
authors.forename: Stephen W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Pruitt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO.
authors.forename: Oh-Ryeong
authors.initials: OR
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS.
authors.forename: J Bradley C
authors.initials: JBC
authors.lastname: Cherry
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS.
authors.forename: Timothy R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO.
authors.forename: Jared M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bruce
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO.
authors.forename: Seung-Lark
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Lim
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000329:Advertising; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D013690:Television
keywords: advertising; brain imaging; decision-making; fMRI; food choices; food marketing; ventromedial prefrontal cortex