title: How real-life health messages engage our brains: Shared processing of effective anti-alcohol videos.
abstract: Health communication via mass media is an important strategy when targeting risky drinking, but many questions remain about how health messages are processed and how they unfold their effects within receivers. Here we examine how the brains of young adults-a key target group for alcohol prevention-'tune in' to real-life health prevention messages about risky alcohol use. In a first study, a large sample of authentic public service announcements (PSAs) targeting the risks of alcohol was characterized using established measures of message effectiveness. In the main study, we used inter-subject correlation analysis of fMRI data to examine brain responses to more and less effective PSAs in a sample of young adults. We find that more effective messages command more similar responses within widespread brain regions, including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, insulae and precuneus. In previous research, these regions have been related to processing narratives, emotional stimuli, self-relevance and attention towards salient stimuli. The present study thus suggests that more effective health prevention messages have greater 'neural reach', i.e. they engage the brains of audience members' more widely. This work outlines a promising strategy for assessing the effects of health communication at a neural level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Imhof
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.|Department of Communication, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schmälzle
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: Britta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Renner
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: Harald T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Schupp
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: alcohol; fMRI; health communication; inter-subject correlation; public service announcements; self