Elsevier

NeuroImage

Volume 46, Issue 1, 15 May 2009, Pages 219-225
NeuroImage

Reduced prefrontal and temporal processing and recall of high “sensation value” ads

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.12.062Get rights and content

Abstract

Public service announcements (PSAs) are non-commercial broadcast ads that are an important part of televised public health campaigns. “Message sensation value” (MSV), a measure of sensory intensity of audio, visual, and content features of an ad, is an important factor in PSA impact. Some communication theories propose that higher message sensation value brings increased attention and cognitive processing, leading to higher ad impact. Others argue that the attention-intensive format could compete with ad's message for cognitive resources and result in reduced processing of PSA content and reduced overall effectiveness. Brain imaging during PSA viewing provides a quantitative surrogate measure of PSA impact and addresses questions of PSA evaluation and design not accessible with traditional subjective and epidemiological methods. We used Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and recognition memory measures to compare high and low MSV anti-tobacco PSAs and neutral videos. In a short-delay, forced-choice memory test, frames extracted from PSAs were recognized more accurately than frames extracted from the NV. Frames from the low MSV PSAs were better recognized than frames from the high MSV PSAs. The accuracy of recognition of PSA frames was positively correlated with the prefrontal and temporal, and negatively correlated with the occipital cortex activation. The low MSV PSAs were associated with greater prefrontal and temporal activation, than the high MSV PSAs. The high MSV PSAs produced greater activation primarily in the occipital cortex. These findings support the “dual processing” and “limited capacity” theories of communication that postulate a competition between ad's content and format for the viewers' cognitive resources and suggest that the “attention-grabbing” high MSV format could impede the learning and retention of an ad. These findings demonstrate the potential of using neuroimaging in the design and evaluation of mass media public health communications.

Introduction

Public service announcements (PSAs) are non-commercial broadcast ads intended to modify public behavior. Televised PSAs are at the core of many public health campaigns. When effective, PSAs carry a great public health benefit (Biener et al., 2000, Emery et al., 2007), however, not all are (Wakefield et al., 2006). The lack of reliable, quantitative and objective means of ad evaluation is one of the impediments to better PSA outcomes. Integrating conceptual contributions from the communication theory with experimental neuroscience methods could provide objective and quantitative measures of PSA evaluation and facilitate targeted ad design.

Prior functional magnetic resonance brain imaging (fMRI) studies of commercial advertising examined the brain response to specific components of ads, such as popular commercial logos. (Erk et al., 2002, McClure et al., 2004). This approach provides information on the public perception of existing consumer brands but not the fundamental issue of the neurophysiologic and behavioral impact of the format in which ad's message is presented.

“Message sensation value” (MSV), is a validated, rater-derived variable of message format that may affect PSA impact and outcomes (Harrington et al., 2003, Palmgreen et al., 1991, Petty and Cacioppo, 1986, Stephenson and Southwell, 2006). MSV reflects the intensity of audio, visual, and content features of PSAs that elicit sensory, affective, and arousal responses (Morgan, 2003, Palmgreen et al., 2002). Higher MSV in anti-smoking PSAs has been associated with increased subjective efficacy in some but not all studies (D'Silva and Palmgreen, 2007, Helme et al., 2007); however, the dose–response relationship and the generalizability of this effect have not been established. Similar approaches are used in commercial advertising, with the sensory salience of ads often outpacing the message.

This empirical strategy assumes that engaging the stimulus-driven, exogenous attention system (i.e. “buying the eyeballs”, (Chattopadhyay and Laborie, 2005, Russell and Belch, 2005)), increases cognitive processing of the content. Contrary to this assumption, experimental brain imaging data on “divided attention” and post-exposure PSA outcome measures suggest that high MSV strategies do not invariably translate to learning or subsequent behavior change (Indovina and Macaluso, 2007, Kang et al., 2006). Moreover, some studies suggest that stimuli engaging the exogenous attention system may be associated with less learning, recall (Hahn et al., 2006, Uncapher and Rugg, 2005), and prefrontal and temporal activity (Foerde et al., 2006) than those engaging the internally regulated endogenous attention system.

Tobacco use is one of the gravest preventable public health problems worldwide (IOM, 2007) and a target of a large number of PSAs, making the anti-tobacco PSAs representative of the public health PSAs genre (Ibrahim and Glantz, 2007, Wakefield et al., 2005). Our primary objective was to characterize the brain systems sensitive to MSV, the key theoretical concept of public health communications thus making the first step toward the integration of the communications theory and experimental neuroscience. We hypothesized that compared to the high MSV (hiMSV) PSA, the low MSV (loMSV) PSA will produce greater BOLD fMRI signal in the brain regions mediating attention and memory, while the hiMSV PSA will produce greater activation in the brain regions mediating visual processing than the loMSV PSA. Our secondary objective was to demonstrate the brain systems activated during the viewing of a 30-second long PSA. We hypothesized that PSA will produce greater BOLD fMRI signal in the brain regions mediating attention and memory, than non-PSA neutral video segments (NV).

Section snippets

Methods

Study protocol was approved by the University of Pennsylvania Institutional Review Board. The participants were 18 regular smokers (M = 13 cigarettes per day, SD = 5.14), 18 to 48 years old (M = 23, SD = 7; 15M; 3F), recruited through advertising. Mean nicotine dependence level (Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (Pomerleau et al., 1994) was 2.17, SD = 1.89 (on a scale of 1 to 10).

Ninety-nine 30-second long PSAs targeting adult smokers (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA) produced prior

Behavioral

Participants denied having seen any of the PSA prior to the study. PSA frames were more accurately recognized than NV frames, t(17) = 3.96, p < 0.001. There was no difference in response time between PSA and NV frames, t(17) = 0.72, p = 0.48. LoMSV PSA frames were more accurately recognized than hiMSV PSA frames t(17) = 2.59, p = 0.019, and response time was shorter for loMSV frames than hiMSV frames t(17) =  2.74, p = 0.014. A summary of the accuracy and response time statistics is reported in Table 1.

Imaging

Discussion

Using anti-tobacco PSAs as a model, we provide first evidence for differences in regional brain activation and recall as a function of ad format. As predicted in our primary hypothesis, the hiMSV PSAs produced less recognition than the loMSV PSAs. This behavioral indication of reduced cognitive processing of the content of the hiMSV PSAs is further supported by the corresponding imaging data; the hiMSV PSAs were associated with extensive activation in the occipital (including the fusiform

Acknowledgments

Supported by grants P50CA095856, CA/DAP6005186, DA015746-01, DA024419 and CA/DAP5084718 from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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