Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the neural basis of subjective experience component underlying preferential decision making with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). The results indicated that the activation of the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) could distinguish the choice options while subjects had to decide which of two unfamiliar different persons’ faces they preferred (Objective Preferential Task), whereas not under those two similar faces (Subjective Preferential Task). Meanwhile, our findings demonstrated that mOFC was associated with objective preference, while the right-middle temporal gyrus (MT) and the left fusiform area were involved in subjective personal experience. These results indicated that these brain regions specialized for perceptual processing of visual stimuli (e.g., fusiform face area) and for subjective preference judgment based on self-referential information (e.g., MT) might interact in the service of subjective preference experience in preferential decision making.