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.

中文翻译：

---

隐性品牌识别可以激活特定于情感的大脑网络。

消费品品牌已成为消费者选择的主要驱动力：它们具有象征性，关联性甚至社会属性，为商品和服务增加了实质性的文化和情感价值。因此，衡量品牌在消费者认知和情感过程中的作用将有助于更好地理解经济决策。这项工作旨在发现对品牌的自动，自发的情绪反应的神经相关性，表明消费符号在个人的认知和情感过程中的整合程度如何。功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）是在视觉奇数球范式中进行测量的，该范式包括以频繁刺激，以彩色正方形作为目标，以及品牌和情感图片（从国际情感图片系统[IAPS]中选择）作为突出情感的干扰因素。在通过有效问卷调查后，分别评估品牌的情感评价。结果表明，与IAPS图片类似，品牌激活了一个明确的情感网络，包括杏仁核和背外侧前额叶皮层，这些都是高度特殊的情感价。总之，这项工作确定了消费者认知和情感过程中品牌的神经相关性。包括杏仁核和背外侧前额叶皮层，对情感价具有高度特异性。总之，这项工作确定了消费者认知和情感过程中品牌的神经相关性。包括杏仁核和背外侧前额叶皮层，对情感价具有高度特异性。总之，这项工作确定了消费者认知和情感过程中品牌的神经相关性。