Social interactions often involve encountering inconsistent information about social others. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to comprehensively investigate voxel-wise temporal dynamics showing how impressions are anchored and/or adjusted in response to inconsistent social information. The participants performed a social impression task inside an fMRI scanner in which they were shown a male face, together with a series of four adjectives that described the depicted person's personality traits, successively presented beneath the image of the face. Participants were asked to rate their impressions of the person at the end of each trial on a scale of 1 to 8 (where 1 is most negative and 8 is most positive). We established two hypothetical models that represented two temporal patterns of voxel activity: Model 1 featured decreasing patterns of activity towards the end of each trial, anchoring impressions to initially presented information, and Model 2 showed increasing patterns of activity toward the end of each trial, where impressions were being adjusted using new and inconsistent information. Our data-driven model fitting analyses showed that the temporal activity patterns of voxels within the ventral anterior cingulate cortex, medial orbitofrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and fusiform gyrus fit Model 1 (i.e., they were more involved in anchoring first impressions) better than they did Model 2 (i.e., showing impression adjustment). Conversely, voxel-wise neural activity within dorsal ACC and lateral OFC fit Model 2 better than it did Model 1, as it was more likely to be involved in processing new, inconsistent information and adjusting impressions in response. Our novel approach to model fitting analysis replicated previous impression-related neuroscientific findings, furthering the understanding of neural and temporal dynamics of impression processing, particularly with reference to functionally segmenting each region of interest based on relative involvement in impression anchoring as opposed to adjustment.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is one of the best available devices that can record the activities of living human brain non-invasively. Its precision and high spatial resolution is matched by none other methodology. The entry barrier to fMRI research is exceptionally high. fMRI has widely been used in medical and scientific research, but its application to marketing research has been limited because of two important reasons. First, the cost problem. The MR scanning devices often cost multi-million dollars and using fMRI for marketing research can be costly. Second, analyzing data from fMRI study is another formidable task. fMRI measures the brain’s hemodynamic activities using voxel as a measuring unit; Voxels are often a cubic with 2 to 3 millimeters on one side. Since a typical adult brain represents over one million voxels in one scan volume, and each scan generally has 2 to 3 seconds of interval time, one experimental block of 40 seconds, for example, will create over 40 million data points. Compared to a typical marketing research data which in general have two dimensions (2d) of rows and columns, fMRI data is inherently 4d with added dimensions of voxel and time. Furthermore, the fMRI signal is sensitive to various sources of noises. In this talk, we offer support for marketing researchers who want to explore fMRI method for their research in the future. First, we discuss issues related to experimental design for fMRI experiments. We explain preprocessing steps that are recommended for fMRI data and show how to apply statistical methods to make inferences that can increase internal validity. Then, we will explicate how to apply big data analytics to fMRI data during this talk to find deep insights into customer’s brains. A real neuromarketing fMRI data will be used to break down the steps for fMRI research and data analytics. Finally, we will open a discussion to discover future research opportunities for marketing research using fMRI. The purpose of this talk is to lower the entry barrier of fMRI method in neuromarketing research so that more people in the marketing field can benefit from the most advanced scientific achievement of our time and discover deepest insights into our customers.

작동 기억력은 학업성취도와 높은 상관을 보이는 요인으로 알려져 있다. 본 연구에서는 정상 대학생중 학업성취도 상위군과 하위군 학생들이 시각적 작동 기억의 부호화와 인출과제를 수행함에 있어 대뇌 활성화에 어떠한 차이가 있는지를 기능적 자기공명영상법을 이용하여 알아보고자 하였다. 실험에 동의한 20명의 대학생들을 학업성취도 상위군 10명과 하위군 10명으로 나눴다. 십자가를 응시하는 휴지기와 도형을 기억하고 인출하는 활성기가 2번 반복되는 210초 프로토콜을 적용하였고, 유의수준 95%에서 두 군의 대뇌활성화 차이를 알아보았다. 부호화의 경우 작동 기억을 담당하는 양측 배측 전전두엽(BA 46)과 주의력과 관련 있는하두정엽과 시각 연합영역에서 상위군이 하위군에 비해 높은 활성화를 보였고, 인출의 경우 우측 배측 전전두엽(BA44)과 모양의 판단과 관련 있는 우측 방추 상회와 설상회 등에서 우세를 보였다. 반면 하위군은 부호화의 경우 대상회에서 인출의 경우 시상과 기저핵 그리고 소뇌 등에서 상위군에 비해 높은 활성화를 보였다. 결론적으로 학업성취도 상위군이 부호화의 경우 작동 기억과 주의력에 관여하는 영역에서 인출의 경우 판단에 관련된 영역에서의 활성화가 높아하위군에 비해 효과적인 작동 기억이 이루어짐을 알 수 있었다.