Physiological measurements: EEG and fMRI. EEG and FMRI

Neuroimaging techniques allow us to investigate neuronal mechanisms underlying information processing, thereby providing an indispensable tool to gain more insight and understanding of how behavior is associated with sensation and perception. Multiple imaging techniques are available. In consumer science, the most commonly used neuroimaging techniques are functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). In this chapter we will start by giving a short introduction on neuroimaging in consumer research and the neurobiology of taste processing. Subsequently, we will introduce how the techniques fMRI and EEG work, what questions they typically answer, and what their limitations are in the context of consumer science. Furthermore, we will describe how fMRI and EEG experiments are typically set up, what types of data are generated, and how these data are analyzed. We will end the chapter with final remarks about data quality and a short overview of the main differences between fMRI and EEG.