The extrastriate symmetry response is robust to variation in visual memory load

Beauty of symmetry - The impact of logo symmetry on perceived product quality

In an era of intense brand competition, a successful logo can effectively boost consumer awareness of a company. However, existing research has not thoroughly examined the aspect of symmetry in logo design. Addressing this gap, the present study investigates the impact of logo symmetry on consumers' perceived product quality. Through three online experiments, the results revealed that symmetrical logos significantly enhance perceived product quality compared to asymmetrical logos, with perceived stability mediating this effect. Furthermore, the study confirmed the moderating role of cognitive load, showing that symmetrical logos positively affect perceived product quality only under low cognitive load, while this effect vanishes under high cognitive load. This study contributes to the field of visual logo design and provides practical insights for companies in product promotion and logo design.

The extrastriate symmetry response is robust to alcohol intoxication

Visual symmetry activates a network of regions in the extrastriate cortex and generates an event-related potential (ERP) called the sustained posterior negativity (SPN). Previous work has found that the SPN is robust to experimental manipulations of task, spatial attention, and memory load. In the current study, we investigated whether the SPN is also robust to alcohol-induced changes in mental state. A pilot experiment (N = 13) found that alcohol unexpectedly increased SPN amplitude. We followed this unexpected result with two new experiments on separate groups, using an alcohol challenge paradigm. One group completed an Oddball discrimination task (N = 26). Another group completed a Regularity discrimination task (N = 26). In both groups, participants consumed a medium dose of alcohol (0.65 g/kg body weight) and a placebo drink, in separate sessions. Alcohol reduced SPN amplitude in the Oddball task (contrary to the pilot results) but had no effect on SPN amplitude in the Regularity task. In contrast, the N1 wave was consistently dampened by alcohol in all experiments. Exploratory analysis indicated that the inconsistent effect of alcohol on SPN amplitude may be partly explained by individual differences in alcohol use. Alcohol reduced the SPN in light drinkers and increased it in heavier drinkers. Despite remaining questions, the results highlight the automaticity of symmetry processing. Symmetry still produces a large SPN response, even when participants are intoxicated, and even when symmetry is not task relevant.

Lessons from a catalogue of 6674 brain recordings

It is now possible for scientists to publicly catalogue all the data they have ever collected on one phenomenon. For a decade, we have been measuring a brain response to visual symmetry called the sustained posterior negativity (SPN). Here we report how we have made a total of 6674 individual SPNs from 2215 participants publicly available, along with data extraction and visualization tools (https://osf.io/2sncj/). We also report how re-analysis of the SPN catalogue has shed light on aspects of the scientific process, such as statistical power and publication bias, and revealed new scientific insights.