Predicting behavior change from persuasive messages using neural representational similarity and social network analyses.

ABSTRACT: Neural activity in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), identified as engaging in self-related processing, predicts later health behavior change. However, it is unknown to what extent individual differences in neural representation of content and lived experience influence this brain-behavior relationship. We examined whether the strength of content-specific representations during persuasive messaging relates to later behavior change, and whether these relationships change as a function of individuals' social network composition. In our study, smokers viewed anti-smoking messages while undergoing fMRI and we measured changes in their smoking behavior one month later. Using representational similarity analyses, we found that the degree to which message content (i.e. health, social, or valence i

SUBMITTER: Pegors TK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5821423 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature