Marketing actions can influence neural representations of experienced pleasantness. Hilke Plassmann, John O'Doherty, Baba Shiv, and Antonio Rangel conducted a study using functional MRI to examine how changes in the price of a product affect neural activity related to experienced pleasantness. Participants were shown wines they believed to be different and priced differently, but in reality, only three distinct wines were used. The study found that higher prices increased subjective reports of flavor pleasantness and increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC), an area associated with experienced pleasantness. The results suggest that marketing actions, such as price changes, can modulate neural correlates of experienced pleasantness by influencing expectations and, consequently, the brain's processing of sensory experiences. The study challenges the economic assumption that experienced pleasantness depends only on intrinsic properties of a product and the individual's state. Instead, it shows that marketing actions can influence experienced pleasantness by manipulating non-intrinsic attributes like price. This has implications for neuroeconomics, marketing, and economics. The findings suggest that the brain integrates sensory properties of a product with expectations about its quality, which can affect the hedonic experience of flavor. The study also highlights that price changes modulate the representations of experienced utility but not the encoding of sensory properties in the primary gustatory cortex. These results provide evidence that marketing actions can influence neural representations of experienced pleasantness, offering insights into the mechanisms through which marketing affects consumer behavior.Marketing actions can influence neural representations of experienced pleasantness. Hilke Plassmann, John O'Doherty, Baba Shiv, and Antonio Rangel conducted a study using functional MRI to examine how changes in the price of a product affect neural activity related to experienced pleasantness. Participants were shown wines they believed to be different and priced differently, but in reality, only three distinct wines were used. The study found that higher prices increased subjective reports of flavor pleasantness and increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC), an area associated with experienced pleasantness. The results suggest that marketing actions, such as price changes, can modulate neural correlates of experienced pleasantness by influencing expectations and, consequently, the brain's processing of sensory experiences. The study challenges the economic assumption that experienced pleasantness depends only on intrinsic properties of a product and the individual's state. Instead, it shows that marketing actions can influence experienced pleasantness by manipulating non-intrinsic attributes like price. This has implications for neuroeconomics, marketing, and economics. The findings suggest that the brain integrates sensory properties of a product with expectations about its quality, which can affect the hedonic experience of flavor. The study also highlights that price changes modulate the representations of experienced utility but not the encoding of sensory properties in the primary gustatory cortex. These results provide evidence that marketing actions can influence neural representations of experienced pleasantness, offering insights into the mechanisms through which marketing affects consumer behavior.