RT journal article
T1 Sparking interest in restaurant dishes? Cognitive and affective processes underlying dish design and ecological origin. An fMRI study
A1 Muñoz Leiva, Francisco
A1 Gómez Carmona, Diego
A2 Marketing y Comunicación
K1 ecological foodstuffs
K1 restaurant dish
K1 presentation
K1 decision-making
K1 functional magnetic resonance
K1 fMRI
AB The objective of the current paper is to verify to what extent the presentation of a restaurant dishand the origin of its food provoke reactions in the consumer's brain during the visualization andthe decision-making process, from an exploratory approach. The two independent variablessingled out for study were whether the presentation was well or poorly presented and if theingredients were ecological or non-ecological.The results applying the functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) methodology reveal thatwell-presented dishes activate areas in the brain linked to the network of emotions indicatingthat the visualization in restaurant menus is not a purely cognitive and self-reflexive process butretains a strong affective component. Furthermore, the presence of this component is kept at themoment of choosing a dish, as observed by the activation of the gyrus cingulate, region linkedto the regulatory processes of emotions. Hence, research ratifies the existence of an emotionalfactor during the entire process of decision-making carried out in a restaurant. Yet it is true thatexposure to an ecological menu provokes activation of the medial frontal cortex, a regionconnected to higher reasoning and attention, suggesting that stimuli from well-presented dishesof ecological origin trigger neuronal responses related to high-level cognitive processes.The practical implications derived, along with its limitations and the future researchopportunities, are interesting for both developing theory and also practice. Therefore, scholarsare encouraged to further test some research proposals (e.g. moderating role of salubrity orsimultaneously eye tracking method).
SN 1873-507X
YR 2019
FD 2019-03-01
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/34467
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/34467
LA eng
NO This study was conducted with the financial support received from the Spanish Ministry ofEconomy and Competitiveness [Research Project ECO2012-39576] and the AndalusianRegional Government [Research Project SEJ-1980].
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 12-nov-2026