Schaefer Michael, Berens Harald, Heinze Hans-Jochen, Rotte Michael
Human Cortical Physiology Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Neuroimage. 2006 Jun;31(2):861-5. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.12.047. Epub 2006 Feb 17.
Brands have a high impact on people's economic decisions. People may prefer products of brands even among almost identical products. Brands can be defined as cultural-based symbols, which promise certain advantages of a product. Recent studies suggest that the prefrontal cortex may be crucial for the processing of brand knowledge. The aim of this study was to examine the neural correlates of culturally based brands. We confronted subjects with logos of car manufactures during an fMRI session and instructed them to imagine and use a car of these companies. As a control condition, we used graphically comparable logos of car manufacturers that were unfamiliar to the culture of the subjects participating in this study. If they did not know the logo of the brand, they were told to imagine and use a generic car. Results showed activation of a single region in the medial prefrontal cortex related to the logos of the culturally familiar brands. We discuss the results as self-relevant processing induced by the imagined use of cars of familiar brands and suggest that the prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role for processing culturally based brands.
品牌对人们的经济决策有很大影响。即使在几乎相同的产品中，人们可能也会更喜欢品牌产品。品牌可被定义为基于文化的符号，它预示着产品的某些优势。最近的研究表明，前额叶皮质对于品牌知识的处理可能至关重要。本研究的目的是探究基于文化的品牌的神经关联。在功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）实验期间，我们让受试者观看汽车制造商的标志，并指示他们想象并使用这些公司生产的汽车。作为对照条件，我们使用了与参与本研究的受试者文化不相关的汽车制造商的图形可比标志。如果他们不认识该品牌的标志，就会被告知想象并使用一辆普通汽车。结果显示，内侧前额叶皮质中的一个区域被激活，该区域与文化上熟悉的品牌标志相关。我们将这些结果讨论为对熟悉品牌汽车的想象使用所引发的自我相关处理，并表明前额叶皮质在处理基于文化的品牌方面起着关键作用。
