fNIRS reveals right hemisphere dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation during use of a cosmetic product subjected to willingness to pay test
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1
Shiseido (Japan), Shiseido Global Innovation Center, Japan
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2
Chuo University, Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Japan
A consumer’s willingness to pay (WTP) is the maximum amount of money they are willing to spend in order to receive a product. The demonstration that right medial orbitofrontal cortex (R-mOFC) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (R-dlPFC) activations measured with fMRI correlate with WTP (Plassmann, O’Doherty, & Rangel, 2007) suggests the possibility of commercial use of “neural WTP”. However, because behavior and brain responses to photo-stimuli are not necessarily the same as those to the real object (Bushong, King, Camerer, & Rangel, 2010; Okamoto et al., 2004), it is important to evaluate consumer responses to products in naturalistic settings. Especially, it is crucial to evaluate cosmetic users’ response to the actual application of cosmetics to their face in front of a mirror.
Thus, we used fNIRS to measure brain activation while 30 female participants applied 6 different powder foundations which varied with respect to their qualities and thus values. The participants were aged between 20 and 22, and were grouped according to their self-reported frequency of foundation usage. Participants who used foundation 6 or more days a week formed a higher frequency (HF) use group (n=15) while participants who used foundation 5 or less days a week formed a lower frequency use (LF) group (n=15). Each participant sequentially tested all six foundations once by applying them to their face in a naturalistic setting. Following each application the participants reported how much they were willing to pay. The resultant fNIRS data was first registered to MNI standard brain space and then the fNIRS data (oxygenated hemoglobin signals) was analyzed with the general linear model (GLM) with regressions using hemodynamic response functions. For each participant the beta scores for the six foundations obtained from the two channels corresponding to R-dlPFC were then correlated with the participant’s six respective WTP scores. The mean correlation of the two R-dlPFC channels was obtained by averaging the correlation coefficients after first converting them to Z scores using Fisher’s R-to-Z transformation. Two 1 sample t tests of the Z scores determined that the HF use group average of this within subject correlation was significantly different from 0 (t(14) = 2.43, p = 0.028, d = 0.63), while the LF use group was not (t(14) = 1.12, p = 0.282, d = 0.29) and a two sample t test indicated that the group mean within subjects correlation was significantly stronger in the HF use group relative to the LF use group (t(28) = 2.63, p = 0.014, d = 0.99; see Figure 1: Graph showing the Z scores for the average correlation between brain activation and WTP for the two groups. * indicates a significant difference (p < 0.05)).
Thus, we demonstrated for the first time that R-dlPFC activation recorded with fNIRS during a single, real use of a product, in this case application of foundation, correlates with WTP, in consumers who frequently use the said product. We suggest that in these high-frequency users, R-dlPFC may contribute to the evaluation of a product possibly via its role in nonverbal working memory.
References
Bushong, B., King, L. M., Camerer, C. F., & Rangel, A. (2010). Pavlovian processes in consumer choice: The physical presence of a good increases willingness-to-pay. American Economic Review, 100(4), 1556–1571.
Okamoto, M., Dan, H., Shimizu, K., Takeo, K., Amita, T., Oda, I., … Dan, I. (2004). Multimodal assessment of cortical activation during apple peeling by NIRS and fMRI. NeuroImage, 21(4), 1275–1288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.12.003
Plassmann, H., O’Doherty, J., & Rangel, A. (2007). Orbitofrontal Cortex Encodes Willingness to Pay in Everyday Economic Transactions. The Journal of Neuroscience, 27(37), 9984. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2131-07.2007
Keywords:
NIRS,
willingness to pay (WTP),
Cosmetics,
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC),
neuroeconomics,
brain blood flow
Conference:
2nd International Neuroergonomics Conference, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 27 Jun - 29 Jun, 2018.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Neuroergonomics
Citation:
Kawabata Duncan
K,
Tokuda
T,
Sato
C,
Tagai
K and
Dan
I
(2019). fNIRS reveals right hemisphere dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation during use of a cosmetic product subjected to willingness to pay test.
Conference Abstract:
2nd International Neuroergonomics Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2018.227.00142
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Received:
02 Apr 2018;
Published Online:
27 Sep 2019.
*
Correspondence:
PhD. Keith Kawabata Duncan, Shiseido (Japan), Shiseido Global Innovation Center, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 224-8558, Japan, keith.kawabata.duncan@shiseido.com