J. Cosmet. Sci., 72, 81–89 (January/February 2021) 81 Luxury Cues of Cream Heighten the Reward Value of Its Tactile Experience NAOYASU HIRAO, MADOKA NORIUCHI, HIROKO ISOBE, and YOSHIAKI KIKUCHI , Shiseido Global Innovation Center , Yokohama-shi 220-0011, Japan (N.H., H.I.), Division of Human Health Sciences, Graduate School of Tokyo Metropolitan University , Tokyo 116-8511, Japan (M.N., Y.K.) Accepted for publication October 25, 2020. Synopsis In our previous study, the brain activity of areas related to social dominance [dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC)] and reward [ventral striatum (VS)] was compared before and after providing information (cue) indicating that an applied cream was luxury. Both the DMPFC and VS showed signifi cantly higher activation after this cue, and the cue also facilitated the connection between the DMPFC and VS via the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Therefore, it may likewise have an effect on primary (SI) and secondary (SII) somatosensory areas. In the current study, we explored this hypothesis by performing correlation analyses of the same data and found a signifi cant positive correlation between the VS and the right SII during the application of the cream even before the cue, and signifi cant correlations between the VS and the right SI, SII, and DLPFC after. These results suggest that the emotional value based on texture is mainly processed through the connection between the SII and VS, and luxury cues further facilitate the connection between the VS and the SI, which plays a role in discriminating the physical aspects of creams. Therefore, we provide neuroscientifi c evidence of the synergistic effect of luxury cues on pleasant tactile and social dominance feelings. INTRODUCTION The primary functional value of skincare products is in the maintenance of skin condi- tion. Furthermore, product information that indicates priorities such as luxury can have an emotional and cognitive value and is thus an important factor to consider when devel- oping valuable cosmetics for consumers. In our previous study (1), the ventral striatum (VS), which is involved in reward processing, and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), which is related to social dominance, showed higher activity during the ap- plication of a luxury cream than a basic cream after providing visual information indicat- ing that it was luxury (cue), whereas no regions showed signifi cant activity before providing the cue. Moreover, activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was positively correlated with activity in both the DMPFC and VS after providing the Address all correspondence to Naoyasu Hirao, naoyasu.hirao@shiseido.com

JOURNAL OF COSMETIC SCIENCE 82 cue. On the other hand, there was no signifi cant activity or correlation before the luxury cues. In addition to the effect of luxury cues, the texture of a product also has a fundamental emotional value that is important for consumer satisfaction because it causes consumers to experience pleasant feelings (2). The physical aspects of product texture have been studied (3) in addition to the associated subjective feelings generally tested using sensory evalua- tions. However, the neural process underlying how the texture of a skincare product is processed as a pleasant experience and whether/how this process is infl uenced by product information has remained unclear. Furthermore, it would be of great help to cosmetic manufacturers when creating more attractive products for consumers to investigate whether there are any synergistic effects from luxury cues on pleasant tactile and social dominance feelings and to clarify their neural processes. Based on these considerations, we here have reanalyzed the data of our previous fi ndings, focusing on these neural pro- cesses. We hypothesized that the neural connections of somatosensory areas such as pri- mary (SI) and secondary (SII) somatosensory areas and the reward-related VS would be modulated depending on cognitive cues. That is, there would be some interaction be- tween the somatosensory processing and the cognitive processing of product information. The regions of interest (ROIs) were the right SI and SII and the left SII, which are in- volved in the somatosensory processing (4) the VS, which is involved in reward process- ing (1,5) and the DLPFC, which may play a role as a hub between reward-related and social dominance–related areas (1). We performed correlation analyses between the VS and the other ROIs as well as stepwise multiple regression analyses with the VS as the dependent variable and the other ROIs as independent variables. MATERIALS AND METHODS PARTICIPANTS A total of 22 healthy, right-handed women (age: 34.8 ± 2.8 years) participated in this study. All participants had been using skincare creams priced more than ¥15,000 as part of their daily routine and had no history of neurological or psychiatric disorders. They provided written and oral informed consent to participate in this study. The Research Ethics Committee of the Shiseido Global Innovation Center approved this study, and all methods were conducted in accordance with the approved guidelines. STIMULI, TRIAL PROTOCOL, AND PROCEDURE We used two skincare creams (cream A and cream B) with noticeably different textures so that the participants could discriminate between the textures of the two creams by how they felt on the back of their hand cream A was formulated to be softer, smoother, and lighter to touch than cream B. Both were water-in-oil type creams. Creams A and B were applied under the “Luxury” and “Basic” conditions, respectively. Data for six task blocks were recorded across three sessions: the pre-cream application session (fi rst session, “pre-Luxury” task block and “pre-Basic” task block), the simultane- ous cream and information session (second session, “Luxury info” task block and “Basic info” task block), and the post-cream application session (third session, “post-Luxury”