The scan protocol consisted of a series of videos and images that were presented to participants using E-Prime (Psychology Software Tools Inc., Sharpsburg, PA, United States), herein called “runs.” The main portion of the protocol was designed to simulate a normal television viewing session and included four commercial runs and three 5-min TV show runs during which the children watched a popular age-appropriate science show (MythBusters). Following this naturalistic paradigm, participants viewed four runs of static ads. Participants viewed all videos and images on a screen through a mirror mounted to the head coil. Each MRI scan consisted of 12 functional runs total. For the purposes of this analysis, only eight runs (the four runs of dynamic ads and the four runs of static ads) were included in the analysis (Figure 2). Participants’ structural scans were completed during one of the TV shows runs.
Each functional run was approximately 5-min in length. Each run began and ended with a 15 s presentation of a fixation cross. To promote participant engagement, a trained research staff verbally talked with the participants between each run and asked if they would like to continue. In the dynamic ad runs, five food and five non-food TV commercials were presented which alternated in an AB pattern (Smith et al., 2007 (link); Maus et al., 2010 (link)). The block pattern for each run was randomized (AB or BA) along with which commercials were played within each block was also randomized. Each commercial was approximately 15 s in length. Static ad runs were similarly randomized but consisted of 10 food and 10 non-food static ads. Each ad image was displayed for 7.5 s followed immediately by another image of the same type (food or non-food) which was also displayed for 7.5 s for a total exposure time of 15 s. This back-to-back display of ads was arranged so that the ad exposure period matched that of the dynamic ad length (15 s). An additional 15 s fixation cross block was placed in the middle of each static ad run to ensure equal amounts of exposure to all stimulus types (i.e., static, dynamic, and fixation).
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