Differences in psychophysiological activation during social issue vs commercial advertising fruition

Objective This study aims to investigate differences in neurophysiological activation during different types of multimedial artefact fruition. In particular we want to verify cortical activation during the vision of both social issues and commercial advertising videos. Participants and methods 10 videos of 30 seconds of duration are presented to a sample of 15 healthy subjects. Advertising videos are selected identifying 5 categories comparable by a commercial or pro-social point of view, and they were: money, health, technology, nutrition and clothing. During videos vision, cortical and physiological activation are recorded by electroencephalography and biofeedback. Results Data show an increasing of Alpha power in central brain areas, greater during social issue advertising fruition. Higher Delta power is present in frontal brain areas for social issue advertising except for nutrition category, in which there is a greater activation for commercial advertising. Physiological data show an increasing of heartbeat during commercial advertising fruition, in particular for money, technology and nutrition categories. Conclusion Data suggest a greater disposition to action and involvement in subjects due to commercial advertising features. This is showed by heartbeat increasing during commercial videos and alpha band increasing in central areas while watching prosocial videos involved in movement and tension to action. During social issue advertising, instead, there is an activation of the frontal area, linked to motivation processes. Finally, considering that frontal lobe is related to high social functions linked to social environment adaptation, we could imagine that commercial advertising moves more ancestral and instinctual processes related to movement and action, with lower central Alpha power. Social issue advertising, on the other side, with higher frontal Delta power, activates higher functions related to motivation, adaptation to the environment, and thus to prosociality.