P300 and decision-making in neuromarketing

Neuromarketing provides insights into consumers' decision-making that traditional marketing test methods cannot offer. The foundation in the process of decision-making is P300. Thus, the P300 wave is a potential Event-Related Component (ERP) used to measure consumers' decision-making process. The P300 wave represents a positive transition in human event-related potential. Therefore, the P300 is determined by measuring the amplitude and latency of the consumers. A higher P300 amplitude indicates greater confidence in the decision-making process, while a longer P300 latency indicates lower attentiveness. Thus, P300 in neuroscience, which investigates customers' responses in-depth, cannot be accomplished by typical marketing methods. For many years, P300 components such as attitudes, preferences, and information-based decision-making have been examined extensively in marketing-related research. However, a review of an ERP in neuromarketing method is fewer reported. This mini review describes some analysis on P300 and decision-making by several researchers.

Direct antivirals and cognitive impairment in hepatitis C: a clinical-neurophysiologic study

Cognition was assessed in hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients, who did not meet the criteria for a minimal hepatic encephalopathy. Their liver function was compensated. We then disentangled potential cognitive changes associated with a sustained virologic response at 12 weeks (SVR-12), following treatment with direct antiviral agents (DAAs). We studied 23 selected HCV patients with a battery of standard neuropsychological tests, and with recordings of the P300 wave, a cerebral potential of “cognitive” significance. There was a baseline evaluation (T0) and a second one 6 months later (T1). We had 2 control groups of comparable age and sex, i.e., 15 patients suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and 15 healthy subjects. At T0, we detected a significant (p < 0.05) cognitive impairment in the HCV group, which involved episodic and working memory, attention, visuospatial and verbal abilities, executive functions, and logic reasoning. The P300 latency was significantly (p < 0.05) delayed in the group. At T1, we observed some significant (p < 0.05) HCV recovery in given test domains, e.g., memory, executive functions, and reasoning. Accordingly, the P300 latency shortened significantly (p < 0.05). HCV patients exhibited subtle cognitive defects, somehow independent of their liver condition, possibly linked to direct or indirect brain involvement by the virus. These defects partly recovered following the SVR-12, as achieved through DAAs. The P300 wave was a valid neurophysiologic counterpart of these changes. DAAs can have a role in the early preservation of cognition in HCVs.

Neural Activities Classification of Human Inhibitory Control Using Hierarchical Model

Human inhibitory control refers to the suppression of behavioral response in real environments, such as when driving a car or riding a motorcycle, playing a game and operating a machine. The P300 wave is a neural marker of human inhibitory control, and it can be used to recognize the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in human. In addition, the P300 neural marker can be considered as a stop command in the brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies. Therefore, the present study of electroencephalography (EEG) recognizes the mindset of human inhibition by observing the brain dynamics, like P300 wave in the frontal lobe, supplementary motor area, and in the right temporoparietal junction of the brain, all of them have been associated with response inhibition. Our work developed a hierarchical classification model to identify the neural activities of human inhibition. To accomplish this goal phase-locking value (PLV) method was used to select coupled brain regions related to inhibition because this method has demonstrated the best performance of the classification system. The PLVs were used with pattern recognition algorithms to classify a successful-stop versus a failed-stop in left-and right-hand inhibitions. The results demonstrate that quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) yielded an average classification accuracy of 94.44%. These findings implicate the neural activities of human inhibition can be utilized as a stop command in BCI technologies, as well as to identify the symptoms of ADHD patients in clinical research.

Conformity and Reaction to Error: An ERPs Study

This article is devoted to the analysis of cognitive indicators of conformal behavior. It presents the results of the study of EEG-correlates of conformity. The hypothesis of the study is that people who tend to the conformal behavior have a similar way of response on the errors and disagreement with the majority opinion. Theexperiment involved 20 participants: 11 – nonconformists, 9 – conformists according to tests (‘Interpersonal Behavior Circle’ by T. Leary and ‘Portrait Values Questionnaire’ by S. Schwartz). Participants took part in two types of tasks: arithmetic tasks and attractiveness evaluation. After solving the tasks, participants were given feedback about right/wrong decisions in arithmetic tasks, and agreement/disagreement with the majority opinion in the evaluation of people’s attractiveness. This study analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) in the case of error or disagreement with the majority opinion. The results of the study showed the differences in the indicators of bioelectric brain activity between conformal and nonconformal participants after the disagreement with the majority opinion. Conformal participants demonstrate higher amplitude of P300 wave upon presentation of the feedback of the disagreement with the majority opinion. Thus, the conformal behavior in a situation of disagreement with others’ opinion accompanied by specific ERP patterns of the brain associated with the correction of behavior. Keywords: conformity, error processing, event-related potentials, P300, error-related negativity